


My Way Home Is Through You

by PumpkinPie (Bulsara)



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Animal Transformation, Blow Jobs, Christmas, Danger Days Era, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I blame my cat, I don't even know how this happened, Idiots in Love, Kissing, M/M, Magic, Mild Gore, Oral Sex, Other, Pining, The Author Regrets Everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-05-31 01:20:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15108806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulsara/pseuds/PumpkinPie
Summary: Gerard, Frank, Mikey and Ray end up in a fortuneteller’s tent during the World Contamination Tour. What they didn't expect was to wake up quite a bit smaller and quite a lot furrier the next morning.Supernatural Elements AU, they are turned into cats and it goes downhill from there.





	1. How It's Going To Be

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, I don't own anything but my own imagination.

 

Gerard brushed his fire truck red hair out of his face and looked around the room. They were at tonight’s venue in Hamburg, a club with an unpronounceable name, for the second to last concert of the first leg of their World Contamination Tour. Tomorrow they were due to play Dortmund before they would fly back home from Germany and get a few weeks of rest. Since soundcheck had ended a while ago, they were all lounging in their dressing room, Mikey and Ray skyping with their wives and Frank playing some game on his phone. There were still a few hours to kill before they had to get ready and Gerard kinda wished that he had someone waiting back home, too. Of course there were his parents, but that wasn’t the same as a girlfriend or even a wife.

 

He sighed quietly and finished his coffee. Ever since Projekt Revolution his love life had pretty much gone to pot. Lindsey was a great woman, but she had told him at the end of the tour that it had been a nice summer fling and that she didn’t see a future for them. Gerard didn’t remember the exact wording, but it had taken her at least ten minutes to explain to him in great detail that they weren’t working out. Anyway, from then on he had had a few girlfriends, but none of them had lasted long. It just didn’t feel right and he knew exactly why, but chose to ignore it.

 

At least he wasn’t the only member of his band, who was still single. Jamia had broken up with Frank only a few days after Lindsey had ditched Gerard. Something about him being on tour so often, not having enough time for her, yadda yadda. Oh, and the stage gay thing, the kisses, the touching. It had been their little anti-homophobia campaign during Projekt Revolution, one of Brian’s most genius ideas. It had gotten them a lot of attention, that much was for sure, but apparently they had been a little too convincing. As a result Frank had temporarily moved in with Gerard and they had cured their heartbreak with lots of pizza, coffee and Star Wars marathons.

 

None of them had managed to maintain a relationship for longer than a few months since then, but at least they had each other. Frank had bought an apartment only a few blocks away from Gerard’s house and they met up nearly every day, making the most of their bachelorhood. Actually Gerard would love to settle down and start a family, but he simply hadn’t found the right person, yet. Okay, if he was being honest with himself, he _had_ actually found them, _but_ … Nope, he wasn’t going down that road. He would take brooding about still being single and stuck in Jersey over that any day.

 

“Guys, I’m starving, let’s get something to eat!”, Frank announced and reached for a jacket to add to the innumerable layers of clothing he was already wearing. That was how they ended up outside the club in the cool November air, hiding their telltale hair under hats and hoods before taking off towards the bakery at the end of the street. However, as they waited for an opportunity to cross the road, Frank squealed like a teenage girl and before he knew it, Gerard was dragged into a different direction towards the bright colors and flashing lights of a fair or something. “Lord, have mercy!”, Ray sighed behind them. Frank was gonna get high on sugar, insist on trying out every single ride and drive them all nuts with his infantile excitement. He really was the biggest man-child Gerard had ever known.

Their first stop was a candy stall, where Frank bought cotton candy, that was nearly bigger than himself, but Gerard, Ray and Mikey rather went with the fried sausages the Germans were so fond of. It was around three in the afternoon and the fair was already pretty well-frequented. There was a huge looping ride in the center of the site and all kinds of other stuff all over the place. Their first stop was a haunted house, next came bumper car and a chairoplane after that. Gerard never would have admitted it, but he was having the time of his life. As unexpected as this little sashay had been, it was a blast.

 

When they passed a shooting gallery and Frank eyed the stuffed animals, that were on display, clearly gauging whether he was too old for them or not, Gerard simply couldn’t resist. It took him only two rounds to win his friend a stuffed pug, he was damn proud of himself. Frank’s beaming smile and his sparkling eyes were so damn beautiful when he handed him the toy, one look at his face was all it took for Gerard’s heart to melt. Of course he didn’t have a crush on his best friend. And he totally wasn’t in love with him, either.

 

Eventually they had circled the entire square. No one had recognized them, yet, who would have thought, and Gerard really didn’t want to push their luck to the limit. He loved their fans, he really did, but sometimes he wished he could be a nobody again and blend right in. This afternoon had felt so blissfully normal, he didn’t want it to end with teenage girls in hysterics and loads of stuff to sign. However, just as they were about to head back to the venue, he set eyes on a dark red tent with golden tassels. It smelled of all kinds of incense materials and the pulled back tarp at the entrance revealed a table with two chairs. A sign Gerard couldn’t read, since he didn’t speak German, said something about 1 for 1€ and 3 for 5€. Just then a woman in a floor-length gown, that looked far too thin for the temperatures, placed a crystal ball and a deck of cards on the table. A fortune teller. To be honest, he was kinda intrigued.

“Why don’t you come in? You’re my first customers today, you may each ask me one question for free, if you want”, she suggested in a deep, slightly husky voice. Gerard eyed her up and down. A black dress with wide sleeves and golden applications, a lot of jewelry, heavy make up, dark eyes and long black hair. She might be in her late twenties, early thirties, something like that. Actually Gerard didn’t believe in divination and all that esoteric crap, but he was already being dragged inside the tent by Frank (why was he not surprised?). Ray and Mikey followed resignedly before the curtain at the door was pulled closed and they were crammed into the tiny space with a few candles as the only sources of light.

 

“Alright, who wants to go first?”, the woman wanted to know and Mikey sat down, since he was the one closest to the table. “Uhmm… I think I wanna know about… our band?”, he said hesitantly. Somehow the woman’s bright smile was a bit disconcerting, but maybe that was only Gerard’s impression. She shuffled the deck of tarot cards and pulled three out of it before she placed them face-down between her and Mikey. “Those will show the past, present and future of your band. Are you ready?”, she explained and revealed the first one when Mikey shook his head yes.

“Three of Wands. You were successful, you reaped the rewards of your efforts and your dreams came true.” Well, she wasn’t wrong. My Chem had definitely blown up and gone far beyond Gerard’s wildest dreams, that much was for sure. She flipped the middle card and her lips twitched a little. “Seven of Swords. This one means lies, perfidy and intrigues. There is something sinister going on at the moment”, the fortune teller said throwing them each a meaningful glance. Huh. Gerard had no idea what the fuck she was talking about and judging by his friend’s faces, neither had they. On to the last card. Their future. “Seven of Wands. You will have to be careful and stand your ground. But if you stay true to yourself and stick together, you will ward off any offenders”, the woman told them with a frown. No shit. They had done just that from the beginning. Mikey smiled awkwardly and murmured his thanks before he quickly got out of the chair.

Ray sat down next and asked: “Will my wife and I have children sometime soon?” Wooooow, shit, where had that come from? Gerard hadn’t even known that he thought about that! Ray was 33 years old, just like him, they were at an age when starting a family made sense, but still… it was so horribly _grown up!_ Once again Gerard felt bad for being single. He wasn’t even close to considering kids. The cards were shuffled and laid out on the table, just like before. “Two of Swords. You have been indecisive for a long time, you haven’t been sure whether you were ready”, she stated and Ray blushed a little and nodded. “Two of Wands. Now you’re seriously contemplating it and assessing your life’s direction.” Well, that wasn’t too hard to guess, was it? “Seven of Pentacles. You have to be patient, but eventually your plans will bear fruit.” That was probably as vague as it got, but okay, fair enough.

Frank was next and murmured: “I dunno… maybe about my love life?” When the woman beamed at his friend, Gerard felt goosebumps erupt all over his back. Her smile really crept him out, even though he couldn’t figure out why. “Of course. Look, the Hermit. You have found yourself already, you know exactly who you are and what you want in a relationship, but you have been lonely for a while now. Three of Swords. You’re going through heartbreak. Maybe it is unrequited love, maybe you have been betrayed. Some call this card ‘Tears of the Soul’ and I’m pretty sure you can relate to that. And finally, Nine of Pentacles. A turn for the better, a pleasant surprise, one that will enrich your life in ways you can’t even imagine. You see this shadow here? It means that if you manage to circumvent what is in your way, or to leave it in the shadows until you’re ready to deal with it, it’s going to be a long and happy relationship”, she explained and Gerard was completely and utterly dumbfounded. Frank was heartbroken? What the fuck?! He hadn’t noticed anything off about him! Frankie was his usual happy and bubbly self. Yes, Gerard had seen him suffering after his break up with Jamia, but he was definitely okay at the moment… was he?

 

Before Gerard could agonize any longer about being a shitty friend, who didn’t notice Frank suffering, he found himself sitting opposite the fortuneteller himself. “Do you want to know about your love life, as well?”, she asked him with a weird glint in her eyes. Gerard swallowed hard and nodded, he couldn’t come up with anything better anyway. He stared at the three cards in disdain and wasn’t even sure whether he actually wanted to hear what she had to say. The fumes of her incense sticks and candles made him slightly lightheaded and he wanted to get out of this blasted tent as quickly as possible.  


“Alright, let’s see what we have here. Five of Pentacles. You’ve been missing something in your previous relationships. You’ve felt alone and you’ve been left”, she stated and Gerard bit his lips. It was spot-on. “Eight of Swords. You feel powerless and stuck, as if your hands were bound. You believe that there was no way out of the situation, but actually you could solve the problem if you really wanted to and accepted the help you need.” Wow. Gerard looked down to his sweaty hands. He couldn’t have said it better, but now that someone had put it into words, it hurt even more. God, he only wanted this to be over! “Oh! The Lovers. A decision regarding your love life is coming up and you have to make it with your heart. You’re gonna have to choose between sense and sensibility. Go very carefully about it and be honest with yourself”, she recommended and Gerard nodded mutely. How could she possibly know?!

 

Suddenly she said: “Can I see your right hand?” Gerard hesitated for a second, but he complied. She gently grabbed his wrist and tilted his arm, so that the candle light illuminated his skin. “Yours too, please?”, she asked Frank after a few beats of silence. The fortune teller held their hands next to each other and studied the lines of their palms before she smirked as she released them. “You are both too blind to see what is right in front of you”, she declared in a smug voice. Out of nowhere she produced a golden plate with some kind of glittery powder on it and blew it at them. Gerard instinctively jerked back and closed his eyes. The air inside the tent was humming with some kind of strange energy as she chanted a few sentences in a weird, guttural language before the lights went out and they were left in the dark.

 

“What the fuck?!”, Frank hissed beside him. Gerard tried to brush the powder off his clothes and out of his face, but there was nothing when he touched his skin. In the meantime Mikey and Ray had found the exit and bright daylight lit up their surroundings. The woman was gone. Gerard had no idea how she could have possibly disappeared without them noticing, but he couldn’t care less at the moment and hurried to get the hell out of her blasted tent. They stood outside in the sun and blinked a few times to readjust to the light. “Okay, let’s never do that again”, Mikey proposed and Gerard agreed wholeheartedly. That fortuneteller crept him out, especially her little stunt at the end.

 

He was very quiet on their way back to the venue. Frank kept rambling on and on about how ridiculous it had been and how her prophecies were incredibly vague. According to him she had definitely known about their band and made the entire thing up. After all she had addressed them in English right away, how could she have known that they didn’t speak German if she hadn’t recognized them? But still… Some of the things she had said were just too accurate for Gerard’s liking. He didn’t know how or when, but he had a feeling that this was going to come back and bite them.

 

Gerard was on his guard for the rest of the day. Try as he might, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened inside that tent, that could not be explained rationally and defied everything he believed to be true when it came to magic and supernatural abilities. But the evening went on without any unusual events. They returned to the club, where they found James Dewees, their touring keyboardist of three years, and Michael Pedicone, their new drummer after Bob had left earlier this year, hanging out in their dressing room. James was a chill dude, a great musician and a really good friend, but Gerard still couldn’t quite figure out Mike. They had toured with his previous band, The Bled, but even though they had played together for a while now, Gerard still felt like he didn’t really click with him. Anyway, eventually they had to get ready for the show (and Gerard definitely didn’t stare at Frank’s naked chest when he changed into a bright red shirt, nope, of course not).

The concert went well enough. Their opener, Talk Radio Talk, did pretty well. They were six guys from around Hamburg, who played some kind of melodic post core. Gerard really liked it, but he looked forward to playing with Kvelertak in Dortmund tomorrow, as well. Their own set was a blast, it was over in no time and before they knew it, they checked into their hotel and got cleaned up. Gerard roomed with Mikey, as usual, but after their showers and a detour to the train station next to their hotel for cigarettes and the McDonald’s across the street for coffee, they all met up in Ray’s and Frank’s room. “Gee, Ray stole my Oreos!”, Frank complained as soon as Gerard opened the door. God, those pouty lips should be illegal! “Stop whining, you can have them back tomorrow morning. I’m not dealing with you on a sugar high, you’ve had enough for today”, Ray declared in a very final tone. “I hate you, Mom!”, Frank growled and threw a pillow at the only responsible member of their band. “Hate you too, pumpkin!”, Ray replied fondly and tossed it right back.

Gerard chuckled to himself and plonked down next to Frank. There were two double beds in the room, that faced a pretty big TV. A boxing match was on, something they understood despite the language barrier. Mikey had made himself comfortable next to Ray and Gerard toed off his shoes before he laid down beside Frank. This was kinda their usual night, they were long past wild parties and passing out in the wee hours of the morning. TV or a movie and a bit of goofing around to end the day was all they needed. However, tonight they really felt that it was the end of their tour. Gerard was completely knackered. On any other day he would have called it a night and returned to his own room, but he just couldn’t be bothered. Only five minutes later Frank was out like a light. He had curled up under the blankets and snuggled up to Gerard for warmth.

 

It had happened a thousand times before, but Gerard treasured ever single occasion. This was the only way he could be nearly as close to Frank as he wanted to be. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulled him in and felt his breath catch in his throat when Frank cuddled up to his chest with the cutest content sigh. If only it could be like this while they were both awake. If only he had the courage to tell Frank how he felt about him.

Three years had passed since Projekt Revolution and the stage gay thing. It had been supposed to be an anti-homophobia statement, just pretending to be into each other, but Gerard hadn’t expected to miss it when it was over. It had taken him ridiculously long to figure out why he kept thinking about it in minute detail. He hadn’t expected to miss Frank like crazy when he moved out of Gerard’s house and into his own apartment after their respective girlfriends had ditched them, either. Only then had he realized that his best friend was on his mind pretty much all the time and freaked out. Like, _really_ freaked out. ‘calling-Mikey-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-having-a-panic-attack-on-the-phone’ freaked out. His brother had laughed at him for a minute straight and told him that he was as blind as a bat for not catching on to it sooner.

Gerard sighed softly and buried his nose in Frank’s freshly washed hair. Once again he told himself why he could never have what he wanted so desperately. Frank was straight. He had never seen him with a guy before. If he came clean to him, he would put not only their friendship, but also their band at risk. Because Frank had never given him even the slightest indication that he might feel the same. Any other day Gerard would have lain awake for hours and yearned for what he couldn’t have, but today he was drained of all energy and fell asleep faster than he had in months.

 

~~~

 

Gerard was shocked awake by the shrill ringing of a cellphone. It sounded like Ray’s alarm, that annoying Nokia beeping noise. God, why was it so fucking _loud?!_ And why the fuck didn’t he turn it off already?! “Raaaaaaaay!”, Frankie whined next to him. That was when Gerard remembered that he had fallen asleep in his friends’ room last night. He groaned and tried to cover his ears, but something was off. Something sharp dug into his sensitive skin. Ever so slowly Gerard opened his eyes and moved his hand in front of his face. He blinked. The colors were off, somehow duller than usual and he could only focus on what was pretty much directly in front of him. Which was… a _paw!?_ What the actual fuck!? It was brown and furry and there were claws in it and…

 

He sat bolt upright and gasped in shock. The bed was huge! And God, did it stink! A pile of clothes beneath him smelled like the very worst kind of unwashed human he had ever encountered, holy shit, it was disgusting! He held his breath and fought the urge to gag. Next he spotted a cat next to him, that wriggled its way out from underneath the blankets. Hang on… Gerard was allergic, how was he not sneez-… That was when it clicked that _he_ was a cat, as well. And _that_ was when Gerard freaked the fuck out.


	2. Action Cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and comments <3

It was pure, total chaos. Gerard was trying desperately to get his foreign limbs to cooperate and had to admit that walking on two legs didn’t work very well at the moment. The cat next to him was a little quicker than him to figure out how to move and ran around the room, bumping into furniture and nearly stumbling over its own feet every few steps. Eventually Gerard made it out of the bed and fell to the floor (so much for landing on his feet. Ouch!). There were two other cats on the second bed, one sitting still like a statue and the other crawling to the edge very slowly. Gerard could hear Frank’s, Mikey’s and Ray’s voices, all at the same time, they seemed to be just as freaked out as him, but since they were nowhere to be seen, he had to assume that they had become felines over night, as well. God, this was the weirdest fucking dream he had ever had, what was wrong with his brain?!

Suddenly Ray roared: “GUYS! SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!” Gerard immediately snapped his mouth shut and swallowed hard. It took a hell of a lot to make their band mom lose his calm, but you really did not want to be close to Ray once he did and started to yell at you. Nobody was that weary of life. When he looked up, Gerard came face to face with a huge brown cat. There were actual curls in its long, fluffy fur, it had that flat, purebred cat face and kinda yellowish-brown eyes. He had never thought about how Ray would look as a cat, but he was pretty sure that this was his lead guitarist. “Frank, is that you?”, asked the fluffy beast as it looked at the feline, that had run all around the room. “Yeah, man! Ray?”, came the incredulous reply. Frank was still a little out of breath and stared at them with wide, terrified hazel eyes. His fur was a beautiful golden color with dark spots and stripes all over his body, that reminded Gerard of his tattoos. 

“Alright, so you must be Gerard and Mikey is up here with me?”, Ray concluded and Gerard shook his head yes. Just then a gray tabby cat with bright green eyes came into view as it scooted closer to the edge of the bed and looked down to where he was sitting on the floor. “Hey Mikes, you okay?”, Gerard wanted to know and breathed a sigh of relief when his baby brother murmured a quiet ‘yes’. This was so weird, Gerard actually started to doubt that it was a dream. It felt so scarily real! Besides, he could have never come up with something so batshit insane. Out of nowhere, Frank took off towards the vestibule and yelled: “Guys, there’s a mirror on the wardrobe door!”

As it turned out, walking was still difficult, but eventually Gerard got his limbs to cooperate and stumbled into the direction of Frank’s voice. They sat next to each other on the carpet and Gerard wrinkled his nose when he caught the faint traces of vomit near the door. Turned out a cat’s nose was both a blessing and a curse. He eyed himself in the mirror. His paws, face, ears and tail were a dark brown, but the rest of his fur was somewhere between cream and beige, darker on his back and lighter on his belly. He had huge blue eyes and was definitely the skinniest one of them all. Gerard didn’t know much about cat breeds, but he did recognize that he was a Siamese. For whatever reason.

“Frankie, you’re a Bengal cat”, Mikey murmured after a few beats of uncomfortable silence. “Great. Whatever the fuck that means”, Frank muttered under his breath, obviously pissed at the development. “Do you know what I am?”, Ray asked Mikey, apparently genuinely curious. Gerard could only admire his stoic calm. He should have expected that Ray would be the only one, who kept his wits about him. “Dunno, probably some kind of Rex cat with the curls and stuff. And I could be a British Shorthair, like the Whiskas cat, that’s the only gray tabby breed I know...”, Mikey explained, but Frank cut him off. “Just great, now that we have established exactly what kind of fucking animals we are, can we maybe talk about what the fuck happened and what we’re gonna do about it!?”, he snapped impatiently. His ears were turned back and his tail twitched every now and then. He seemed to be really, _really_ pissed, but Gerard couldn’t help but notice how beautiful he was in his fury. Even as a cat. God, he was so in over his head…

 

“Maybe it goes away by itself?”, Mikey offered halfheartedly. Frank snorted and threw him a nasty glance. “Well, at least we found out what that creepy spell and the powder were for”, Gerard sighed wearily. He had fucking known that something weird was going to happen! Frank looked like he wanted to blow up for good when they heard noises from the other side of the room. They were quiet, a little dulled, but definitely there. Chirping and whistling? It sounded familiar, but the entire world was different from a cat’s perspective. Gerard tried his best to creep into their direction but he stumbled over his feet… paws… whatever - a few times, making quite a lot of noise. The others were not far behind and had similar problems if the quiet cursing was anything to go by. When they finally reached the balcony, it took Gerard a while to realize that they were eavesdropping on two small brown birds, that were sitting on the balcony’s railing. Huh. At least he didn’t feel the urge to eat them, that would have been the fucking icing on the cake.

 

Gerard spent the next few minutes figuring out how to walk properly. Once he got the hang of it, he managed quite well, but it still felt weird and took quite a lot of concentration to coordinate four legs at once. When he was somewhat satisfied, he tried to jump up onto the bed again and face planted into the side of the mattress. Way to go. Frank rolled on the floor and laughed mercilessly. Ha ha, very funny. Gerard managed to get back into bed at the next attempt and decided to inspect his clothes to maintain at least a shred of his dignity. Everything was laid out in the shape of his body, his phone was still in the pocket of his jeans, just like his wallet and the pack of cigarettes he had bought yesterday night. The tour stench nearly made him gag. God, was it really that bad? There was no such thing as clean clothes at the end of a tour, but it had never bothered him before. Even Frank’s scent was a bit much for his sensitive nose, while he usually loved it like nothing else.

 

That was when footsteps came closer, somebody hammered on the door and yelled: “Guys! Bus call in thirty!” It sounded like their tour manager... Shit. They had a show to play tonight, they had to make the drive to Dortmund. How the fuck were they supposed to explain what had happened!? “Guys? Do you think we’re still gonna be able to talk to the others? Like… will they even _understand_ us?”, Mikey said very quietly and Gerard’s blood ran cold in his veins. He hadn’t even considered that a possibility. What if their friends mistook them for actual cats and threw them out on the streets? Every time he believed to get a grip on their situation, a new problem came up and he was thrown off guard again. “Fuck, I really don’t know. But hey, we could text somebody! Where’s my phone?”, Ray said eagerly, jumped onto his bed and climbed from there onto the nightstand. 

 

It took them nearly five minutes to even unlock the thing, the buttons on the side were so tiny that they had to push them with their teeth and swipe across the screen in time. Ray managed to open his contact list and select Mike, their drummer, but that was about as far as they got. The touch screen was already difficult for their cat paws, but the tiny keys they needed to hit for texting were just impossible to deal with. Next they tried calling him, but it was apparent that he didn’t understand a word they said. He got pretty pissed, murmured something about fucking cats, told them to move their asses out to the bus and hung up on them. Ray sighed heavily. Frank let out a plethora of curses, that would have given the teachers at his catholic high school a heart attack. Mikey sat still as a statue and stared at the phone in shock. And Gerard just wanted to curl up and cry. He made it to Frank’s bed and hid beneath his friend’s pillow, only to find out that crying didn’t work in a cat’s body. There were no tears, no outlet for his distress, except for quiet whimpers and the shaking of his body.

 

Gerard didn’t know how much time had passed, but he registered another set of footsteps in the hallway outside the room. Once again there was a knock on the door, but this time the unmistakable noise of a key card in the lock and a beep followed. When Gerard crawled out of his hiding place, the first thing he saw were three cats sitting around a laptop on the table across the room. Ray was typing carefully, his tongue hanging out in concentration, but he looked up when Mike opened the door and froze on the threshold. There was a long, tense silence. Mike stared at them as if he were questioning his sanity. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he carefully entered the room, shut the door and leaned against it. 

“What the fuck is going on here?”, he murmured quietly. “Listen, man, since you can’t understand us anyway, just read what I’ve got so far, okay?”, Ray offered and pointed at the screen with one of his paws. Both Mike and Gerard snapped out of it and joined the others at and on top of the table respectively. Ray had gotten as far as what had happened in the tent. It was short and riddled with typos, but at least they had a way of communication. “Are you honestly telling me that some hag turned you guys into _cats?_ ”, Mike exclaimed with an awkward laugh. Gerard shook his head yes while Ray struggled to write ‘Tell the others.’ “Ray, is that you?”, Mike wanted to know. Gerard tried to bite his lips and flinched when sharp fangs pierced his flesh. His friends were busy explaining to their drummer who was who, but Gerard couldn’t focus on that. 

 

Something was off. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but somehow Mike made his skin crawl in a way, that was uncomfortably reminiscent of the fortune teller yesterday afternoon. Maybe it was the look in his eyes, maybe the way he smiled too wide and promised to do everything he could to help them without any further questions. The drummer was out of the door and back again in no time with a huge black carry-all before he googled for a curse breaker in Hamburg. He came up with some kind of witch's shop after a few minutes and suggested they try that first in the hopes of the owner knowing someone, who would be able to help.  


Actually it was a pretty good plan, Gerard probably wouldn’t even have thought of it and that was exactly what rubbed him the wrong way. Mike had never stricken him as the most organized or level-headed guy, he was more likely to be the first to blow up whenever there was a problem and make impulsive decisions. It was too fucking smooth. But since he had no idea how to voice his suspicion and didn’t have a better plan, he went along with it and climbed into the bag reluctantly. Something about the hotel not being pet-friendly. He didn’t buy it for a second. The carry-all was zipped shut, then there was a click and Mike lifted them off the ground.

 

It was cramped and muggy inside and he was wedged uncomfortably between Ray and Mikey, but at least they could still see something, thanks to their cat eyes. The door of Ray’s and Frank’s room slammed shut behind them and set off Gerard’s alarm bells for good. What if Mike drove them somewhere and simply left them in a bag at the other end of the city? He had no idea why he would do that, maybe he was becoming paranoid, but still… The elevator rushed down to the lobby and suddenly the cool November air seeped into their prison. Why was Mike taking them away from everyone they knew? Why wasn’t he taking their manager or James with him? And most importantly – why was he heading to a German shop if he didn’t even speak the language? 

 

Out of nowhere a trunk lid was opened, they were tossed inside and the door slammed shut again. “Guys, I have a shit feeling about this”, Gerard whispered just as Mike got into the driver’s seat and took off to God knew where. “Me too”, Mikey agreed and pressed his shaking body against Gerard’s side. “Bullshit, he’s our friend!”, Frank chimed in dismissively. “If you had walked in on us as cats, what would you have done?”, Ray asked him quietly. “Dunno, what’s your problem?”, Frankie wanted to know, he already looked pissed again. “The problem is that you would have freaked the fuck out and he didn’t. He believed us right away, didn’t ask any questions and got us out of there as quickly as possible. I don’t like it”, Gerard explained impatiently. Frank’s shocked face said it all. “Shit, can we get out of here?”, his friend asked with an edge of panic in his voice. Mikey was the closest to the zipper and tried to move it with his claws and even his teeth. “He locked it, the click before we left!”, Gerard realized and felt cold dread pool in his stomach. This was not going to end well.

 

That was when Mike started talking. He told them that they had totally fallen for it, that he were sick of working his ass off without getting the recognition and attention he believed to deserve. His rant went on and on, he complained about never being taken to interviews and photo sessions, the fact that he didn’t even have a killjoy name and that he should have been given the position Bob had had within the band before him. When he growled that they were going to wish they had treated him better and that he was going to make them pay, Gerard felt sick to his stomach. He never would have suspected so much anger and outright hate in Mike, he sounded so vicious, so spiteful, it was scary. And then there was a quiet rasping noise. Gerard craned his neck and caught a glimpse of Mikey, who had slashed the bag’s lining with his talon and slipped through the opening into the side pocket. Only a moment later the inside of their prison lit up with daylight as Mikey dragged a zipper open with his teeth. 

 

“Mikeyway, you’re a fucking _genius!_ ”, Frank whispered and followed Gerard out of their prison. Of course Ray’s fur caught in the zipper and they all had to help with pulling it out, but he made it, as well, and just in time since the vehicle slowed to a stop and Mike got out of the door. “Just make a run for it!”, Ray whispered urgently. The trunk lid opened and Gerard didn’t hesitate. He pushed himself of the ground and managed to land on his feet this time. He could hear Mikey and Ray next to him as he ran as fast as he could… Wait. Mikey and Ray. Gerard glanced back, ground to a hal and felt his heart skip a beat. Mike stood by the open trunk and held a cat at arm’s length. Frank was struggling and cursing, but there was no question who had the upper hand there. 

 

Gerard saw red. He wasn’t even thinking, he would be damned if he let that piece of shit hurt the guy he loved. Mike was standing with his back to him and Gerard crept closer and closer until he took a deep breath and jumped as high as he could. He landed on Mike’s shoulder and dug his talons into his face. Gerard bit his ear, pulled his claws over every bit of bare skin he could reach and tried to literally scratch his eyes out. He was furious, his blood was boiling with rage. Not! Frankie!!! Mike howled in pain and was so shocked by the attack that he dropped Frank in order to grab Gerard instead. But Gerard hissed and screamed, bit the fingers, that wanted to snatch him and pulled his talons over Mike’s shaved head for good measure before he jumped off and made a run for it with his friends hot on his heels.

Apparently Mike had taken them to some kind of port, the smell of fish and water was heavy in the air, mixed with tar and seaweed. They made their way through a group of tourists, passed a few souvenir booths and finally hastened across a bridge, that spanned a busy street beneath them. There was a subway station on the other side, perfect to get rid of their persecutor, if he was even following them at all. They hid behind a huge suitcase in a quiet corner and tried to catch their breaths. God, Gerard had never been so high on adrenalin before, not even when he had performed in front of thousands of people in Madison Square Garden. “What the fuck, Gee, what was that?”, Ray wanted to know as soon as he had calmed down enough to speak. “Yeah, you went into complete berserk mode, it was scary!”, Mikey added with a huge cat grin. His little brother looked damn impressed.  


Gerard tried to shrug his shoulders, but that was kinda impossible as long as he was standing on his front legs. “I just… he had Frank! I couldn’t leave without him”, he admitted quietly. Suddenly a warm body huddled against his and Frank nuzzled his head underneath his chin. A rough tongue licked the soft fur of Gerard’s neck and his eyes rolled back into his head. It felt so incredibly good! A weird vibration started in his chest and spread all over his body, like goosebumps, but infinitely better. He would have been perfectly happy if he could have stayed like this forever. “Uhmm… guuuuyyysss?”, Ray murmured next to him, a little weirded out, judging by the tone if his voice. Only then did Gerard realize that Frank had actually _licked his neck_ and he had been _purring_. Oh God, he was so glad that his fur hid his blush, otherwise he would have been beet red. Could cats even blush? Nevermind... “ Sorry. Uhm… thanks for saving me”, Frank said awkwardly and made a point of inspecting his claws. Gerard swallowed hard and nodded. This moment right now had been the most intimate they had been in three years. As fucking cats! His heart was racing in his chest and his adrenalin level had reached a new alarming high.  


“Why did that bastard even take us here? Did he… did he want to throw that bag into the water and _drown_ us!?”, Mikey stammered incredulously. Gerard felt as if he had been punched in the gut. He didn’t want to believe it, but it made so much sense. Fuck, what had they ever done to deserve this?! They exchanged horrified looks as it sunk in that they had just escaped death by a whisker. Suddenly the suitcase was pulled away and they were abruptly reminded of their surroundings. It was loud, it was chaotic, and everything was so _huge_ , just pure sensory overload. “Does anyone know where we are?”, Ray asked shakily. That was when it sunk in that they were stranded in a foreign city, thousands of miles from home, and could neither understand the language nor communicate in any way. 

 

Gerard had never felt so lost before. 


	3. Get The Gang Together

“That sign there says ‘Landungsbru-...brücken’. Whatever that means”, Frank read after a while. Gerard had no clue. “Over there is one with ‘exit’ on it”, Mikey proposed and pointed a paw to their right. It was as good as anything. They made their way out of the station and Gerard sighed with relief when some of the noise faded away. “So, what now?”, he asked the others, hoping desperately that Ray had a plan. “Let’s go back to the hotel, James will help us”, their band mom suggested. Actually a really good idea, _but_ … “How do we get there? We have no idea where we are and I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the address. Plus, we can hardly ask for directions, can we?”, Gerard pointed out the obvious. They were truly and utterly fucked.

  


In the end they followed the biggest street they found and hoped for the best, maybe they were lucky and would recognize something along the way. After what felt like an eternity, a shit-ton of colors appeared in the distance. Gerard could have cried with joy when he realized that they had found the fairgrounds. He thanked whichever deity had led them here and nodded enthusiastically when Ray proposed to look for the fortune teller and hope that she would turn them back. It might not be the best idea to seek help from the very person, who had gotten them into this mess in the first place, but it was literally their last straw.

  


Once they had made it across the street, they realized that there was nobody around, after all it was still pretty early. A fence blocked the entrance to the area, but luckily it had gaps, that were large enough for them to slip through. They crossed the site, heading for the red tent they remembered only too well. The rides around them had looked pretty big from a human perspective already, but now the huge looping ride in the center of the fairgrounds could as well have been fucking Burj Khalifa. Anyway, the closer they got, the more Gerard felt his heart sink. The tent was gone. In its place was a food truck with ‘Lángos’ written all over the side, that stank overwhelmingly of garlic. Two young women in thick jackets and knitted hats were loading it with supplies, completely obnoxious to the fact that their presence here was a disaster of epic proportions. This had been their last hope for help. Gerard couldn’t believe how absolutely everything went wrong at the moment. 

  


Eventually one of the girls took notice of them and came closer. She kneeled down in front of Frank and cooed something in German before she raised her hand and petted his head. Frank stood frozen in shock, it was almost comical. “This is fucking weird”, Mikey murmured and shuddered violently. “Tell me about it”, Frank quipped sarcastically. “Suck it up, guys, they have food and I’m starving. Be nice!”, Ray said in his very best no-nonsense tone. He took a few steps forwards, just as the second girl approached them. Gerard hadn’t even realized it before, but he was famished, as well. They hadn’t had breakfast and more than twelve hours had passed since dinner. Their band mom sat down and gingerly wrapped his fluffy tail around his feet. Then he looked up with huge eyes and whimpered: “Food? Hungry? I’m cute!” Gerard couldn’t help but howl with laughter. Seriously!? “Oh my good, you’re shit as Puss in Boots, you know that?”, Mikey declared with a giggle. “Shut up, at least I’m trying!”, Ray hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

  


However, Gerard’s laughing fit had gotten him the attention of both young women. They talked among each other, seemingly concerned, and threw him worried glances. “What’s wrong?”, Gerard asked the others. “You sounded like a dying duck”, Frank explained helpfully. Before Gerard could come up with a smart response, the girls disappeared into their truck. “Great fucking job, Gee”, Ray sighed in resignation. “What now?”, Mikey asked after a few beats of silence, but all he got were three clueless faces. That was when the girls returned with a big plastic bowl of water and four paper plates, that exuded a delicious smell. It had Gerard’s mouth watering immediately. Was that ham? Salami? Both? “There goes my vegetarianism”, Frank stated quietly. “Are you kidding me? In case you haven’t noticed, you’re a _cat!_ We’re carnivores and we have no idea when we’re gonna get something to eat again, don’t be a baby!”, Ray rebuked him and once again gave the young women his best attempt at puppy dog eyes.

  


Gerard snorted and giggled, it was so fucking ridiculous. The girls cooed at him and placed the first plate in front of him, petting his back when he sniffed the cold cuts of ham and salami. Apparently they thought that his ‘dying duck’ laughter was an expression of suffering, being sick or something. “I fucking hate you”, Ray growled darkly. Gerard would have loved to flip him off, but he contented himself with a smug grin and a huge bite of ham. The taste was not what he was used to, but it satisfied the angry rumbling of his stomach.

  


Eating wasn’t that easy. He had never been good at bobbing for apples and this was basically the same thing since he couldn’t use his hands. There was no way he was gonna bring paws, that had run along the dirty sidewalks, anywhere near his food. Once he had wolfed down about half of his portion, it became decidedly trickier to pick up the little squares of cold cuts with his fangs. “Guys, use your tongues, for God’s sake, have you never seen a cat eat?”, Mikey instructed them with an almost audible roll of his eyes. When Gerard looked up, his brother had already cleared his plate while Frank and Ray were struggling with similar problems as him. After that it went a lot better. There were little barbs all over his tongue, that helped a lot with scooping up even the last shreds. Gerard made a point of purring to express his gratitude. He relaxed his throat and remembered the feeling of Frank’s tongue in his fur. The girls smiled at him and petted him some more. It was a little scary, their hands were so big compared to his tiny body, but they didn’t seem like they meant them any harm. 

  


“Guys, I have an idea! If we can find our way to last night’s club, we only have to wait there! Someone’s going to come looking for us!”, Ray proposed as soon as he had finished eating. Gerard purred even louder, nudged the girl’s hands with his head and they were on their way again. It was quite a bit further than he remembered from yesterday afternoon, but then again – his cat legs were a lot shorter than his human ones. They were only a few yards away when a man left the club and got into a taxi. “Fuck, that’s James!”, Mikey yelled in horror. They tried to follow their friend’s car, but even at their fastest sprint, they were simply no match for it. Mikey and Gerard were a little quicker than Ray and Frank, they made it as far as a huge four-lane highway, but Gerard held his brother back when he wanted to storm after the receding red lights of the taxi. 

Ray and Frank caught up to them, wheezing for breath and wobbling on their feet. Gerard looked around and realized that they were lost. Again. Murphy’s law was really fucking them over today. “God, I wish we hadn’t eaten the goddamn ham”, Mikey murmured next to him and sat down underneath a tree at the corner of the street. Ray sighed heavily and plonked down next to him. “We didn’t know, Mikes. And the ham was my idea, it’s my fault that we missed James”, he said wearily. Gerard was already opening his mouth to protest when Frank beat him to it. “No. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. All of it. _I_ was the one, who wanted to go to the fair and it was _me_ , who dragged you guys into that tent. None of this would have happened if we had just gotten something from the bakery and left it at that”, his friend whispered with his head hung low and his ears turned down. 

  


It was quiet for a few painful seconds, none of them knew what to say. But eventually Gerard shook his head, placed his paw on Frank’s shoulder and said: “Don’t do that to yourself, Frankie. Blame that hag if you want, or that bastard Pedicone for all I care, but not yourself. You never intended for any of this to happen and I don’t blame you, okay?” Frank looked like he wanted to cry, but he nodded faintly and managed a twitch of his lips, that looked like a wobbly smile. Gerard really wanted to give him a hug, but that was another point on the long list of things, that were pretty difficult as a quadruped. “Guys, I don’t think we’re getting anywhere today. I’m gorged and knackered, I want somewhere to sleep. Can we just look for a place to take a nap?”, Ray proposed with a huge yawn. That was when it dawned on Gerard that they didn’t have anywhere to stay. The fortune teller had turned them into cats, but Mike had made it even worse and condemned them to a life on the streets. They were estrays and it was November. This was Germany, it might be still relatively warm, but they had actual winters here, that was only a question of time. 

  


“Let’s go”, he sighed quietly and took the lead back the way they had come. Crossing a busy road like the one behind them would probably end badly and he was pretty sure that he had seen a small park, like, two hundred yards away or so. Maybe they could hide beneath a bush or something. However, as soon as they had found a trail, that led towards a playground, they heard loud voices from somewhere behind the bushes to their right. Gerard exchanged looks with his friends and crept closer. There were three cats cornering a fourth and apparently getting ready to beat him up. The one closest to them was black, while one of his friends had white fur with big gray spots and the other was a tabby cat. All of them were in pretty bad shape, they could definitely use a bath. One could practically smell fear oozing out of the poor guy in the middle. For now they were only hauling insults at him, but Gerard could tell that this would escalate at any moment. Actually it was none of their business, but three on one was really unfair and he had always hated bullies with a passion. If he had given it to Mike earlier, he could damn well take down three cats, right? 

Suddenly one of them lunged forwards and tried to hit the poor sod, who was crouched down in an obvious pose of submission. The fact that they didn't let it be and were still set on fighting, even though their opponent had already given up, pissed Gerard off to no end. "Are you with me if I interfere and help?", he whispered over his shoulder. "That's a stupid fuckin' question, go for it!", Mikey hissed from behind him. Gerard raised himself up to his full height and rounded the bush until he stood directly behind the three molesters. Ray took a stand to his left and Frankie and Mikey struck a violent pose to his right, just like on stage. Gerard felt fucking invincible with his friends by his side.

  


"Is there a problem?", he said casually and bit back a growl when one of the three ragged creatures sneered at him. “We're claiming his territory and we want him out of it. What is it to you?", the black one, who appeared to be the leader of the small pack, spat out disdainfully. Gerard felt his hackles rise. There was so much tension in the air, that he couldn’t even appreciate the fact that this was the first time since their escape from Mike’s car, that he had an actual conversation with anybody but his friends. "I don't think so", he purred dangerously quiet and pulled back his lips to reveal his fangs. Ray hissed lowly and Frankie growled deep in his chest. All of a sudden the three guys didn't look very sure of themselves anymore. "Look, we got here firs-...", the leader told them nervously, but Ray cut him off and said: "And you're gonna be the first to leave." The black guy seemed to get the drift and took a step away from the cat he had been threatening, but his companions didn't bulge. They didn't strike Gerard as the sharpest tools in the shed anyway. 

  


Just then those two made a fateful decision. They pounced on Frank. Big, _big_ mistake. The red haze clouded Gerard's vision once again as he bared his teeth and made mincemeat of those idiots. They didn't know what hit them when he tore one guy's ear to shreds and bit the other's neck until he tasted blood. In the meantime Ray captured the leader in a headlock and Mikey placed a sharp talon right beneath his balls while Frank chased after the one with the frazzled ear. "Don't you dare touch him or I swear, I'm gonna kill you! I've fought a lot worse than you and I've never lost!", Gerard ground out through his mouthful of fur and flesh. The cat beneath him howled with pain and begged incoherently for mercy. Gerard bit him a little harder for good measure before he let go and hissed: “The next time I see your ugly faces around here, _my_ face will be the last thing you’re _ever_ gonna see!” They immediately turned tail and ran. Gerard was damn pleased with himself. 

  


“Remind me not to piss you off as long as you’re a fur ball”, Ray commented dryly. “Fur ball? Look who’s talking!”, Gerard quipped back and was rewarded with an annoyed eye roll. “I didn’t know you had such anger issues, but thanks again, you’re a pretty badass cat”, Frank said with a huge grin. Gerard almost wished that he would come to cuddle again. Okay, not almost… more like really fucking desperately. But he shook himself out of it and finally turned around to face the cat, that was the cause of the entire ruckus. 

He was a tabby cat with tousled fur and scared eyes. His ears were slightly frayed and the white fur around his mouth was baked with dried blood and dirt. But most importantly – he still looked like he was only waiting to be finished off and chased away any second now. “Hey man, what’s your name?”, Ray asked him amicably. The guy stared at his friend as if he couldn’t believe what he heard. “K-Karl, but… I don’t get it, w-why don’t you finish what they started?”, he stammered after a few beats of silence. “Why would we do that? They were being assholes, now they’re gone, end of story”, Frank declared with a frown. Gerard really didn’t understand what the problem was, why didn’t this guy just say thank you and let it be? 

  


“Hang on – so you _don’t_ want to fight me for my territory?”, Karl exclaimed incredulously. “Why would we do that?”, Mikey wanted to know and shook his head in confusion. Karl stared at them like they were completely mental. _“What kind of cats are you?!”,_ he spluttered and took a cautious step back. “None at all. We’re actually humans, but we woke up like this today and we have no fucking idea where we are and how we can undo it”, Frank explained patiently. Karl blinked a few times, still keeping up his defensive demeanor. “You’re shitting me, right?”, he said after a while. “Unfortunately not. I’m Ray Toro, by the way, and these guys are Frank Iero, and Mikey and Gerard Way”, their band mom finally made the introductions. Gerard would have loved to participate, but he rather stopped and appreciated the fact that they were understood by anyone but themselves for the first time in a day. Apparently Cat was an international language. He would have thrown a fit if they hadn’t even been able to communicate with their ‘kin’.

  


“O...kay? Well, nice to meet you, I guess. But if you don’t mind me asking – if you don’t want my territory, what are you still doing here?”, Karl asked them hesitantly. “Listen, man, we’re only looking for somewhere to sleep. We have to try and find our way back to our hotel tomorrow, but we’ve had a hell of a day and really need some rest”, Mikey managed to say through his yawn. Karl flicked his tail a few times and scratched his ear before he said: “Alright, I don’t know what a hotel is, but I guess I owe you. Come on, you can stay with me for the time being, it isn’t very far”, and trotted deeper into the park.

  


Gerard exchanged hesitant looks with his friends, but now that the adrenaline had worn off, he was so done, he could hardly walk straight and his tail dragged in the dirt behind him. Besides, it was already getting dark and noticeably cooling off. November nights were no bed of roses. So they trailed after their new friend and were led through a residential neighborhood before Karl stopped in front of a huge abandoned building. He slipped under a metal gate and lead them through a gaping hole in a wall. Gerard mustered the last of his strength and followed him inside. It looked like a theater or an opera or something, but there was dirt and garbage everywhere and everything was covered in shitty graffiti. At least they were protected from rain and wind, even though it was still pretty cold. Karl walked ahead and slipped underneath a stack of ancient wooden seating, where a few pieces of cardboard and some rags were dragged together to form some kind of nest. 

“Make yourselves comfortable”, he yawned and plonked down in the center before he started to lick his front paw. Yeah… no. Gerard was _not_ go nna do that, he didn’t want to slobber all over himself, that was _big_ no. He was covered in blood and grime, there was no way he was practically eating dirt. But that was a problem for another day. Gerard laid down between Frank and Mikey and cuddled up to both of them for warmth. Their shared body heat felt like a hot shower after a long concert. Only then did he notice the throbbing in his paws. “Are your feet as sore as mine?”, he asked the others, but all he got were matching tired groans. “Thanks again for helping me out. This is actually nice, I haven’t been so warm in a very long time, Karl sighed sadly. Gerard wondered what had happened to him to end up in this godforsaken place, but that was a question for another time, as well, since he was out like a light within seconds. 


	4. Professional Griefers

Gerard was the first to wake up the next day. He didn’t feel too great, but it could have been a lot worse. As much as yesterday had been a disaster in every possible way, at least they had been lucky enough to find a place for the night. The others were still sound asleep, but Gerard really needed a toilet. Just great. He carefully extricated himself from his friends and set to explore his surroundings. An old theater, just like he had guessed yesterday evening. The remains of the seating and all kinds of debris were scattered everywhere. There wasn’t really a stage or anything, only a huge round space in the center, like a circus arena. Bright sunlight filtered through a circumferential row of dirty windows in the dome-shaped roof and a hole in its center. The building was abandoned and dilapidated, but the graffiti and doodles everywhere made it beautiful. Actually it would fit right into their Danger Days concept, but before Gerard could follow that line of thinking and/or agonize over the fact that it might never truly come to life, his bladder reminded him that there were more pressing matters at hand.

  
Eventually he found yesterday’s hole in a wall, that lead into an overgrown inner courtyard. It had probably been a door at some point. Gerard could smell that various animals had already relieved themselves here and figured it was as good as anywhere. After he had followed nature’s call (damn, he had never had to think so much about the logistics of taking a dump before), he continued his stroll around Karl’s home. It was big, but not big enough to get lost and some parts of the building were so ruinous that he didn’t dare enter them anyway. Just as he was about to head back, because his paws had started to throb again, he descended a flight of stairs, sidestepped a huge green plastic garbage can and stood right in front of a huge hole in a brick wall. Jackpot. Apparently the building had been a bar or a restaurant or something at some point, because parts of a counter, a few cupboards and – most importantly – a sink had been left behind. It looked pretty new compared to the rest of the building, but still in dire need of a deep cleanse.

  
Gerard jumped onto the counter next to the sink and yanked at the faucet until it opened and brown, brackish water splattered into the basin. He could have cried with relief, this was the first good thing to happen to him today and he liked to think that it was the beginning of an upwards trend. Eventually the water cleared and didn’t smell like the gutter any more, so Gerard craned his neck and took a tentative sip before he drank down as much as he could. He had been completely parched, this was like an oasis in the desert. Afterwards he held his sore feet underneath the cold stream and sighed with relief when the throbbing stopped.

  
The sink made things a lot easier in more ways than one. It was a reliable source of drinking water, Gerard had found a way to deal with his feet (since he didn’t have calluses from playing string instruments, that would have made things a lot more comfortable, thank you very much) and Karl finally believed their story. The first time he saw the running water, he stood frozen to the spot for an entire minute straight. They told him what had happened from the start and he immediately promised to help with finding their friends and offered to let them stay in his hideout as long as they needed. His only condition was that they would take him with them if they turned back, so that he could become the laziest, fattest, most spoiled house cat ever. It was the best deal Gerard had ever made, hands down.

* * *

  
So that was how they started to roam the city in search for their hotel. Every day they would go into a different direction, try streets they hadn’t checked so far and slowly cover the area. A few days into their mission, they passed a newsstand and Mikey spotted their faces on the cover of a magazine. It was ridiculously easy to steal a copy and drag it underneath a parked car. Unfortunately it was in German and they didn’t understand a single word, but at least there was a photo of their hotel next to a short article about them a few pages in. Karl told them that it seemed familiar, but that he couldn’t remember where he had seen it. After that they split up to be more effective. Gerard would go with Ray and Frank while Mikey stayed with their new friend.

  
However, day after day went by without either group being successful. Gerard was about ready to admit defeat, but Ray kept them going. In times like these Gerard truly envied him for his unwavering confidence and positivity. They only had a few hours at a time since cats needed an insane amount of sleep and there were quite a lot of other things to do, as well. Karl gave them a cat crash course, for lack of a better word. They learned to trust their instincts, to climb trees, to land on their feet when they fell and to finally master their balance until they could walk on the thinnest branches without stumbling. The next task on Karl’s agenda was grooming. It was disgusting, one really shouldn’t think about bacteria and parasites too much. Gerard hated it with a passion, but he believed their new friend right away that he would get sick if he refused, so he did the absolute minimum and hoped for the best. In theory they could have washed in the sink, but since the temperatures were dropping rapidly, they refrained from that.

  
Ray had been dealt a truly shitty hand. His fur was so long and curly, that it matted incredibly quickly. Whenever he tried to groom himself, the barbs of his tongue would catch in one of the many knots and he would be stuck with a mouthful of fur. He looked ridiculous every time it happened. Ray would squint and pull, progressively getting really, really pissed off, until he would yank his tongue free and sit with loose hair hanging out of his mouth. Then he would spit it out and curse like a trooper, it was hilarious. After a few days they took pity on him and combed his fur with their claws to the best of their ability. It wasn’t ideal, not by a long shot, but it helped. Their band mom still looked like an exploded sofa cushion, but no one was crazy enough to tell him that.

  
It was hard to see an upside to their situation, but sometimes it did happen. They learned a lot about themselves, it was as if their most prominent character traits had been amplified in their altered forms. Gerard was a fighter. It wasn’t his physical prowess, but his mentality and way of thinking. He would ward off whoever dared set foot into Karl’s territory and word seemed to spread since that happened notably less often after a while.

  
Frank turned out to be an incredible charmer. Even as a human his smile had been mesmerizing and his good looks had gotten him what he wanted pretty easily, but as a cat he was simply irresistible. His fur shone like gold in the sun and his huge hazel eyes were downright hypnotizing. He mastered the eye trick from Shrek in no time and started to go around and charm old ladies into giving him treats. Once he even got his paws on a huge piece of fried chicken and carried it all the way back to the opera to share with them.

  
Ray had always been the most level-headed and foresightful of them, but he was a fucking genius when it came to stealing food. It couldn’t be helped, sometimes even Frank’s charm would fail and they didn’t have a choice. Their band mom would plot exactly how they had to go about it, who would be the distraction, who would do the actual stealing (usually Karl) and who would keep cave. They looted hot dog stalls, fish booths at the market and even supermarkets once or twice. Needless to say that they didn’t make themselves any friends, but they were careful not to raid the same people twice and to always make a run for it as quickly as possible.

  
Mikey proved to be an excellent hunter, because he had what Gerard, Frank and Ray lacked: patience and excellent observation skills. Of course they all learned how to catch mice and birds, but Mikey was by far the most successful. Frank tried it once or twice, but he refused to actually eat his prey and let the mouse run again (Karl caught it and devoured it immediately). Frankie told them that he had never deliberately killed an animal before and that he would rather starve to death than start now. He managed to eat the meat and fish they stole or the stuff he scrounged, but he would not actively end a life so that he could live.

  
However, one day it was especially cold, so that Frank hadn’t found anyone to work his magic on and they hadn’t had any opportunity to steal something, because people simply hastened to get somewhere warm as quickly as possible and there weren’t any food booths around. Ray had considered raiding the supermarket, a place called EDEKA, again, but since they had done that twice already, they ultimately decided against it. Mice it was. They were lucky, there was enough for everyone, but Frank had wandered off to their hideout when they had gone on the hunt. Gerard worried about him, he really did. It was so fucking cold that he could see his breath in the chilly air and Frank couldn’t afford to lose what little body fat he had before winter even started for real.

  
That was how he trotted towards their little nest with a dead mouse between his teeth. “Fwankie? Can you come out? But cwose your eyes, pwease”, he managed to say around his prey. He had caught and killed it himself, it had taken him at least an hour, but it would be definitely worth it if he got his friend to eat. “Why do I feel like I won’t like this…”, Frank sighed quietly, but he shambled out of their sleeping berth anyway. “Awwight, don’t fweak out, but you gotta eat. Jus’ keep youw eyes cwosed and pwetend it’s somefing ewse”, Gerard suggested hopefully. The answer was a huff and the loud rumbling of a stomach. “Pwease, Fwankie, I cauwt it just fow you”, he pleaded with him after a few beats of tense silence.

  
Frank hung his head and sighed, but he nodded reluctantly and took a tentative step closer. Gerard was giddy with pleasure. “Open up”, he said and no, he definitely didn’t think of any other scenarios that might include those words, for God’s sake! Frank did as he was told and Gerard managed to push the mouse’s head between his fangs. Frankie bit it carefully. He flinched and gagged when the bones splintered beneath his teeth, but he kept going, instinct taking over as he finally satisfied his body’s demand for food. “Are you okay?”, Gerard asked him timidly when he was done. Frank shuddered, and not in a good way. “It was hairy, it had a fucking tail and you drooled all over it. I’m not o-fucking-kay, I think I’m gonna throw up”, he ground out and swallowed a few times, his entire body tense as a bowstring. Gerard sighed and felt his shoulders slump. Not quite the reaction he had hoped for.

  
However, when he turned around to return to the others, who were still out hunting, Frank caught up to him and murmured: “Wait, Gee. Please.” Gerard gritted his teeth and tried to hide his disappointment. He had frozen his ass off in front of that mousehole, at least a little appreciation would be nice. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it the way it came out. I…It was fucking gross, but thank you for doing that for me. Really. I don’t think I could take this without you. You’re, like, the only thing, that’s keeping me sane. You know that, right?” Frank said hurriedly, his tail flicking every now and then. All the tension bled out of Gerard’s body with a deep sigh. No, he hadn’t known. But now that he did, his little heart was tap dancing against his rips. “Don’t be mad at me?”, Frankie begged him in a very small voice and looked at him with huge, pleading eyes. Gerard felt his insides melt. “Of course not”, he said with a grin and nudged Frank’s shoulder. The words ‘I love you’ burned and died on his tongue.

* * *

  
It was Friday, the 26th of November. Ray had started to keep track of the days and made a tally of scratches in the old seating, that spanned their sleeping berth. The face of the city had definitely changed in the three weeks they had been roaming it. Christmas decorations had popped up everywhere, it was insane, even though they were slightly toned down and less corny compared to what they were used to from the US. They had been lucky early on in their hunt for food when a kid had dropped his fried sausage on one of those Christmas markets, that had proven to be a godsend and steady supplier of nutrition. A few minutes later, Frank had distracted the personal of another food booth. They had come out to pet him while Gerard, Mikey and Karl had sneaked inside to each steal a raw steak and Ray had kept an eye on everything. They had become shockingly good at this. After satisfying their constantly empty stomachs, they had found themselves with quite a bit more time to look for their hotel, it was barely even midday. That was why they managed to go a lot further than usual for the very first time.

  
Gerard knew that they were headed in the right direction when they passed the IKEA he had noticed on their way from the concert to the hotel. It seemed like a lifetime ago. The moment he spotted the brown brick building in the distance, he broke into a sprint and only barely managed to avoid running into a car. The door was open and he was about ready to storm inside when Ray called him back. He turned around impatiently and frowned when he realized that his friends were sitting on the sidewalk and staring at the parking lot. Only then did it hit him that something was missing. Their bus. _All of the buses._ “They didn’t wait for us”, Frank whispered, barely audible over the constant noise around them. Gerard felt like his brain short-circuited and he was left inside this still slightly foreign body as a silent bystander. He hardly registered how he moved back to their hideout, he was numb, only physically present. His mind had caved in on itself, because he simply couldn’t let the terrible truth sink in and fathom that they were on their own for good.

  
All this time he had clung to the hope of finding their friends, somehow explaining to them what had happened and them fixing it. But without that goal ahead of him, he had no fucking idea what he was supposed to do anymore. He only snapped out of it when they had returned to the ruin he had already come to think of as ‘home’. Gerard heard Frank’s voice and Mikey’s shocked gasp from somewhere, but he wasn’t even able to go and comfort his brother. He simply sat on the theater’s old stage and stared into the dirt. This couldn’t be happening, how had their friends given up on them so quickly? It took him a few minutes to realize that everyone but Ray had wandered off to deal with the shock on their own. Gerard desperately wracked his brain for something to say, that would make it better. “I feel you, man, but we’ll figure it out on our own, it’s gonna be okay”, was all he came up with. He didn’t even believe it himself.

  
Ray’s head jerked around sharply, he bared his teeth and hissed: “Yeah, sure, since that worked so well until now. Shut the fuck up, Gee, you have no idea how I feel. I’m never gonna see Christa again! You won’t ever understand, you don’t have anyone, ‘cause you’re not capable of having a real relationship!” Gerard stumbled a few steps back. Ray’s words stung in a way he never would have expected from him. Their band mom was always friendly, always polite, Gerard had never heard him talk anyone down, he was a fucking saint, but this was brutal. He couldn’t deny the truth in the statement, but the fact that it was _Ray_ , who had said it, made it ten times worse. He swallowed hard and was incredibly grateful that he couldn’t physically cry in this body, otherwise he would have been sobbing at this point. He felt fucking horrible. Ray was always right, if he said something like this, it was probably true. Gerard turned around and let his feet carry him into the most run down part of the building. He nearly would have hurt himself a few times, but eventually he reached a dark, quiet corner and curled up into a tight ball with his paws covering his ears and eyes.

  
He didn’t want to hear or see any more today. It was freezing cold, but he simply ignored the shaking of his limbs. Only then did he remember what his friend had said before that low blow. Never seeing Christa again. He believed that they wouldn’t be able to undo the spell. They would be stuck like this for the rest of their lives. If _Ray_ had given up, how were they supposed to carry on? He had been the one, who had kept them going, they never even would have made it this far without him! Gerard spent hours and hours contemplating that question, agonizing over his life choices and just downright hating himself. Why did he fuck up all of his relationships? Barbara, Kat, Eliza, Lindsey, the list went on and on. Yes, it was Frank, whom he thought of in the dead of night and whom he yearned for with every fiber of his heart, but why had he never managed to just suck it up and pull himself together? He had to fucking accept that Frank would never feel the same for him and that he would never get to call him his. Gerard had known that from the start, but he still failed to get it into his thick skull.

  
“Gee?”, someone said close by and Gerard sighed. He wasn’t in the mood to talk. “Leave me alone, Ray”, he whispered quietly. Gerard didn’t even bother to look up, his sense of smell was precise enough to recognize him without a doubt. “Gee, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I said that, I never should have lashed out at you”, his friend murmured after a few beats of tense silence. “You said it because it’s the truth. You don’t have to take it back to make me feel better”, Gerard stated with a humorless chuckle. He didn’t even know why the others still put up with his shit. “But it _isn’t_ true. None of it”, Ray protested vehemently. Gerard snorted at that, still refusing to move. His friend sighed heavily and sat down beside him. Gerard already felt like crying again.

  
“If I’m right, you know exactly how it feels. It’s probably even worse that you’re in this together, isn’t it? I mean… you have to live with him right in front of you”, Ray said gently and placed one of his big, furry paws on Gerard’s shoulder. Gerard froze. Nobody knew about his feelings for Frank, nobody but Mikey! “Am I right?”, his friend pried gently after he had gotten absolutely nothing out off him for a minute straight. Gerard whimpered softly and squeezed his eyes shut. What good would it do to lie to Ray, he had never been able to fool him. And they were cats, he would never be with Frank anyway. Fuck it. He shook his head yes and sniffed quietly, a poor substitute for the good crying fit he would have needed.

  
“I’m not blind, Gee. I noticed that something was off after Frank moved out of your house and I figured out what it was the next time we went into the studio. We’ve been friends for years, I know what you look like when you’re in love, even though it has never been this bad before”, Ray explained and laid down next to him. Gerard would have loved to cuddle up to him for warmth, but the second part of what Ray had hurled at him earlier still stung too much for that. His friend seemed to notice that he laid stiff as a board and put two and two together. “You _are_ capable of having a real relationship, Gee. Just not with the girls you’ve dated since Lindsey. But I honestly believe that you and Frank… you could be good together. Really. I shouldn’t have said that and I’m sorry”, Ray whispered.

  
Gerard sighed quietly and finally buried his face in his friend’s tangled fur. “I guess we’re never gonna know”, he murmured into the thick curls. “Why not? You’re in this together, what is holding you back?”, Ray asked him gently. Seriously?! Yes, they no longer had to worry about a possible relationship to cause problems within the band, but they were _cats_ , for fuck’s sake! Oh, and of course: “Only that he doesn’t feel the same for me”, Gerard ground out bitterly. He could almost hear Ray’s eye roll. “What if he does?”, his friend wanted to know, but Gerard had had enough of this conversation. It was pointless anyway. He got up and said: “I’ve never seen him with a guy before and I’m pretty sure that I would have noticed if he wanted me like this. Thanks for apologizing, but please don’t give me any false hope. I’ve had enough of that these past weeks”, before he made for their sleeping berth. He was pretty sure that Ray called something after him, but he ignored it. All he wanted was to pass out and forget that this day, or rather this entire month, had ever happened.


	5. Brother

Two days later Frank and Karl came running into their hideout at nightfall and Frank immediately hauled himself at Gerard. He literally crawled into his arms and hid his face in his chest, panting and shaking like a leaf. “Fuck, Frankie, what happened!?”, Gerard gasped in alarm and looked pleadingly at Karl when all he got from his shivering friend was a whimper. Karl was still trying to catch his breath, but he explained: “There were… these people. They had some… kind of net… on a stick… They caught him and… grabbed him and… they wanted to put him into a car. I tackled the guy… he dropped him… and then we ran.” 

  


Gerard felt like vomiting and pulled Frank as close as physically possible. “There are _cat catchers_ around here?!”, Ray blurted out incredulously. “It was a few streets away, they had a big white car”, Karl replied wearily, finally calming down. Gerard swallowed hard and closed his eyes. He didn’t even want to imagine what could have happened to Frank if Karl hadn’t been with him. Frank was his everything, he _couldn’t_ lose him! “Thank you, man. Just… thank you. I don’t know how we can ever repay you for everything you’ve done for us”, he managed to say after Frank had stopped shaking in his arms. Karl smiled at him and flicked his ears. “That’s what friends do”, he stated with a shrug. “I’m so fucking glad that we met you”, Ray murmured and went to give their friend a hug, He had taken the words right out of Gerard’s mouth. They would have been royally fucked if they had had to survive on their own.

  


A few minutes later, after a quick walk to the sink and the inner yard, Frank and Gerard cuddled up in their sleeping berth. Frank refused to let go of Gerard and rested his head on his rips with Gerard’s paws curled around his front legs. Gerard sighed contentedly. “I’m so damn relieved that they didn’t take you, Frankie. I love you… you’re like a brother, you’re family. I couldn’t do this without you”, he whispered, hastily covering his slip up. Mikey probably would have kicked him in the balls for chickening out, but this was neither the place nor the time to confess his feelings to Frank. It wasn’t like he had planned to ever do so, but… if anything, today’s events had shown him how quickly everything could go to shit even more. Maybe he should man up and finally trust his brother, who had been telling him for years to go for it. But not today. He needed time to figure it out. 

  


For now he gently nuzzled Frank’s forehead and started to groom whichever part of him he could reach. They had never done that before (except for the one time after they had escaped from Mike), but Gerard simply needed something to prove to himself that the man he loved was still here with him. He eagerly licked the top of Frank’s head and could feel the purring start underneath his paws. Gerard couldn’t help but purr himself as he dragged his tongue through his friend’s golden fur again and again. God, he was so beautiful! Even as a cat. Gerard had heard quite a lot of people say that they would love their significant other no matter how they looked, but he could honestly say that it was true. Not even a tail, claws and too much hair could change that. He hummed happily when Frankie fell asleep and his purring faded to quiet snores. So fucking adorable! Before he knew it, the steady raise and fall of Frank’s chest lulled him to sleep, as well. 

  


Neither one of them was aware of the conversation, that took place only a few yards away. Otherwise they would have mocked Mikey and Ray for having to explain the concept of homosexuality to a very confused and extremely grossed out cat. That lead to another one of Karl’s lessons as he explained to two not so confused, but definitely weirded out humans how ‘it was done correctly’ and that cats did not have relationships, since every girl he had known had tried to punch him after the deed was done. Something about hormones and barbs in unspeakable places. Karl had lived with his brother Kurt instead, at least until he hadn’t come home one day this summer. Their friend was pretty sure that he had wandered off to find a cat in heat to mate with and been hit by a car along the way. That was the reason why he hadn’t been able to defend a territory they had held together on his own and why he had let them stay so readily. And he was incredibly glad that he had done so, since it had gotten him a family.

 

* * *

 

As December rolled around, it became horribly cold. Like, _Jersey_ cold. The snow turned out to be a nightmare since they were small enough to actually drown in it. But at least the Christmas markets were a steady supplier of food. Ray proposed to sneak onto a ship to the US, but eventually they decided against it. It would be just their luck to be thrown overboard as soon as they were discovered. At this point Gerard had kinda lost faith in humanity. Some people treated them like fucking dirt, once a woman had even tried to kick Ray and thrown a stone at him when she had missed. Ray had dodged it, Gerard had jumped on her shoulder and Frank had stolen her keys when she had dropped them in shock. Then they had dumped them into the closest gully. Three fucking cheers for sweet revenge. 

 

* * *

 

A week after that Gerard and Mikey were on their way back to their hideout from yet another fruitless hunting trip. It was as if all the mice had disappeared, did those little fuckers hibernate? They had almost reached their destination when they heard loud noises from the other side of the building. As they rounded the corner, they set eyes on a male cat, who sunk his teeth into a female’s neck and tried to mount her. It looked fucking brutal, was cat rape even a thing?! Gerard didn’t think about what he was doing and made quick work of the guy, he had a nerve to intrude into their territory anyway. What he hadn’t been expecting, was for the cat lady to look him up and down and purr: “You’re gonna do.” What!? Oh God, no, this wasn’t happening! He was _not_ gonna fuck a cat! She looked decent, at least by cat standards, a tabby cat with a white muzzle and chest, but still… no, just _no!_

  


 

“Uhmm...”, Gerard murmured very eloquently as he tried to find a way out of the situation. “Well, are you gonna get to it or what?”, she said with a roll of her eyes and an impatient twitch of her tail. “Uh… no, thanks, I-I’m good”, he stammered and took a few steps back. She scowled at him and turned around to hit on his brother instead. “What about you, pretty boy?”, she drawled seductively. Gerard was pretty sure that Mikey would have blushed violently if he had been able to. “Nope, uh… I’m married and… I actually have to go. Nice meeting you”, his brother ground out and looked at him with a totally freaked out expression. “What the fuck, then why didn’t you let that wimp do it? That still would have been better than nothing. You can’t leave me hanging like this!”, she all but yelled at them. Well… this was awkward. Suddenly Mikey made a run for the building and yelled: “Kaaaaaarl!!!”, at the tops of his lungs.

  


A few minutes later their friend strolled to their sleeping berth and stretched with a satisfied groan. “I have no idea what’s wrong with you guys, but thanks. I wouldn’t dream of turning down a bomb like her”, he said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Mikey tried his best to explain to him the concept of marriage, but he didn’t quite get it, from his point of view it didn’t make sense to mate with only one other individual since it wasn’t very beneficial to preserving their species. The discussion went back and forth for a while until Ray wanted to know: “Guys… let’s say we did shag a cat and managed to turn back somehow while she’s still pregnant… would the babies be half cat and half human?” Man, this was becoming ridiculous! “Let’s just… not find out, okay?”, Gerard sighed and decided to take a nap. 

  


Just before he fell asleep, he heard Frankie cackle: “Kaaaaaaaarl, there is a dead human in our house!” Oh, Jesus Christ, really? Like… _really?!_ Gerard curled up into a tight ball while Ray and Mikey tried to explain to their confused friend what was going on and Frank erupted into fits of giggles. It was actually surprising that it had taken him so long to make that connection, but now that he had, they would have to endure endless Llamas With Hats references for weeks, that much was a given. Just great. If it had been anyone but Frank, Gerard would have been sick of it after two or three days, but he gave the guy he loved a free ride when it came to pretty much anything… Yeah. Free ride… bad choice of words. 

 

* * *

 

According to Ray’s tally it was the 20th of December, when even more shit hit the fan. Gerard hadn’t really thought it possible, but was disabused when Karl’s breathless voice sounded from the back door: “Guys! GUYS! HELP!!!” Gerard immediately felt sick to his stomach and bolted into his friend’s direction, Ray and Frank hot on his heels. They had never heard Karl yell like that before, something had to be very, very wrong. Gerard gasped in shock when he rounded the corner and took in the sight before him. Mikey hung limply over Karl’s back, covered in snow and barely conscious by the looks of it, with a huge, bleeding wound on his right hind leg. Whoever had done that, Gerard vowed to make them pay, he would… fuck!

  


Gerard stood frozen to the spot and watched Frank and Ray shift Mikey onto their band mom’s back. Frank carefully held up his injured leg as they slowly made their way towards their sleeping berth and Karl dragged himself over to the sink. He was shaking like a leaf, apparently utterly drained. Gerard closed his eyes and tried not to freak out. Why Mikey!? Hadn’t they been through enough already!? How the hell were they supposed to take care of such an injury? Only when Frank called for him, did he snap out of it and hurry to join the others, who were trying to get his brother to the heap of cardboard and rags, that was their bed. With combined efforts they succeeded, after a lot of cursing from Frank and horrible pained groans and whimpers from Mikey. 

  


When his brother could finally lie down comfortably, Gerard took a deep breath and forced himself to look at the wound. It was fucking horrible. By now it had stopped bleeding, but Mikey’s fur was still hopelessly soaked, he couldn’t even assess the damage. That was when Karl returned from the sink, fell down next to Mikey and closed his eyes in exhaustion. “It were those fuckers, who wanted to beat me up the day we met. I would recognize their stink anywhere. We split up to hunt, but when he didn’t come to get me when the sun went down, I looked for him and found him like this”, their friend explained before he craned his neck, peered at Mikey’s leg and said: “You’ll have to clean that up.” No shit, Sherlock. Unfortunately they had neither disinfectant nor water or even a clean cloth. 

  


Apparently their faces gave away their cluelessness, because Karl rolled his eyes and snapped: “Well, groom it already! I didn’t carry him here for this thing to fester and kill him!” Oh. Right. Cats. Cat medicine. Gerard swallowed hard, squeezed his eyes shut and licked the blood of the wound. Mikey howled with pain and tried to pull his leg away, but Frank and Ray held him in place. Gerard felt like he was choking on the huge lump in his throat. Seeing his baby brother in pain was torture, he would take it upon himself in a heartbeat. God he couldn’t bear the sounds, that escaped Mikey’s throat! Gerard tried to be gentle, but to get it over with as quickly as possible. He forced himself not to cringe at the taste, but it was really fucking gross, even worse than the very first day, when he had Mike’s and the three fucking cunts’ blood all over him. God, if he had known what was to come, he would have killed them when he had the chance. Nobody touched his baby brother. Absolutely no one! 

  


When Gerard was finished, he inspected the wound. The skin was torn pretty badly, it was a deep gash, probably caused by a talon. Luckily it wasn’t down to the bone, but it would still need stitches. Emphasis on ‘would’. There was a vet near the fairgrounds, but there was no way they were gonna make it there, Mikey was too weak for that. They would have to cross numerous streets, that would be a suicide mission. Plus, it was a sad reality that stray cats, if they were treated at all, ended up in one of those high kill shelters quite frequently. They existed in the US, so Gerard assumed that the Germans had something similar. What good would it do to treat Mikey’s injury if he was euthanized a few days later, because nobody had adopted him? The were fucked. Completely and utterly fucked. Gerard knew as much when not even Ray had a brilliant idea what to do.

  


He _couldn’t_ lose Mikey! There was no way he would make it without a vet, he had lost a lot of blood and Gerard could already feel the tissue heating up under his tongue. He was pretty sure that they had been too late to clean it up. Gerard was about ready to curl up and cry when Frank sucked in a huge gulp of air and ran out of the building at breakneck speed. Ray cursed and followed him, but Gerard couldn’t have moved if his life depended on it. He laid down next to his brother and pulled him into his arms. Mikey was shivering and whimpering, he was so weak that he could barely keep his eyes open. 

  


“Hey, Mikes. You’re gonna be fine, you’ll see. Everything’s gonna be okay”, Gerard whispered, desperately trying to convince the both of them. “If you say so, Gee”, Mikey slurred quietly, but the resigned look on his face gave away that he realized how dire their situation truly was. God, Gerard wanted to hunt those fuckers down and rip them apart, one after the other, but he reigned in his fury and stayed where he was, cradling Mikey’s head to his chest. His brother needed him more than he needed revenge. But the day would come when they would pay. And if it were the last thing Gerard ever did. 

  


Almost an hour later two pairs of soft paws on concrete announced Frank’s and Ray’s return. Frankie looked incredibly proud of himself when he dropped the small glass bottle he had carried onto their bed. Gerard squinted his eyes and read ‘Wodka’ on the blue label. Ever so slowly a smile spread across his face. “Frankie, you’re a fucking  _genius!_ ” , he exclaimed excitedly and jumped up in order to hug the living daylights out of his friend. “Yeah, he nearly got himself killed when he wanted to run across a four-lane freeway without looking and we probably can’t ever set foot into that supermarket again, but I’ll admit that he does have his brilliant moments”, Ray added dryly after he had dropped his own bottle, but Gerard didn’t even listen. 

  


That little bit of alcohol meant hope for his brother. If they could somehow prevent a massive infection, Mikey had a chance. On top of that, his nose was buried in the soft fur of Frank’s throat. Ray could have told him what exactly he had to do to become human again, he still wouldn’t have paid attention, because Frank held him close and groomed his head. His own purring and his racing heartbeat drowned out anything else. Okay, almost anything, because a pained whimper cut through the haze and finally spurred him into action. 

  


It took them the better part of half an hour to get the fucking lid off. Gerard held the bottle between his teeth and paws while Ray and Frank tried to unscrew the stubborn piece of metal. When the first whiff of booze reached Gerard’s sensitive nose, he very nearly would have run. Fuck, did that stink! How could he ever have swigged gallons of that stuff so easily!? His eyes were literally watering and that had never happened in this body before. “What  _is this?!”_ , Karl wanted to know from a safe distance of a few feet away. “The bwane ow my pfuckring eggsistence”, Gerard growled around the glass in his mouth and tried not to breathe through his nose. “Even if we ever turn back… I’m never drinking again”, Frank declared when they finally succeeded and the stench became overwhelming. 

  


Apparently it was bad enough to wake Mikey up, because he blinked a few times and wrinkled his nose. Gerard gently nudged him with his muzzle and said: “Listen, Mikes, we have to clean that wound. I’m pretty sure this will hurt like hell.” His brother sighed and bit into the gross rags, that made up their sleeping berth before he nodded and closed his eyes. Together they managed to pour about half of the liquid over Mikey’s leg. He tensed immediately and moaned quietly before he started to shake and a horrible scream tore out of his throat. Even muffled by the fabric in his brother’s mouth, it made Gerard’s ears ring. It went on and on, Mikey started to twitch all over, his toes curled as his leg convulsed until he finally fell unconscious and his head hit the rags with a soft thud.

  


Gerard could only stare at him. What had Mikey ever done to deserve this? Why the fuck was it always him? Nobody could have so much bad luck, his brother had been mugged before, several times, but never like this. God, Gerard wished he could take the pain from him. Frank cuddled up to his side and hummed sadly. “He’s gonna make it, Gee. He’s a stubborn little fucker, he isn’t that easy to kill”, he whispered and Gerard nodded mutely. Cold terror had settled in his stomach. They had nothing to bind the injury, and he couldn’t even get his brother something to drink, jumping up onto the counter next to the sink was totally out of the question. How long could a cat survive without water? Three days? Four? Probably less if he developed a fever. How long until they ran out of alcohol and all the grime inside their hideout became too much for Mikey’s immune system? Gerard collapsed onto the bed and curled around his brother’s limp body. He placed one of his paws on his chest, anxiously monitoring his breathing and his heartbeat.

  


~ Ray’s POV ~

  


Ray sighed with relief when the familiar silhouette of their hideout appeared in front of them. Karl had suggested they go and try to get their paws on something to eat again and they had been absurdly lucky. There had been an unsupervised sausage booth, it had been ridiculously simple to steal the four biggest ones off the barbecue and drag them underneath a car, that had been parked only a few feet away. So that was how they arrived, each carrying a giant piece of meat for their friends. But when they reached their destination, Ray had to blink a few times in order to make sense of what he saw. Mikey was lying in bed and greeted them with a tired smile, but Gerard and Frank were rolling around in the dirt, cackling manically and trying to hit each other playfully with their paws. ‘Trying’ being the key word there, since they missed more often than not and laughed even harder at themselves every time it happened.

  


“ We’ve been gone for only a  few hour s , and  _this_ is what I come home to? What did they do this time?”, Ray sighed resignedly as he set down one of the sausages in front of Mikey. Honestly, he was too old for this shit, those two were literal children on occasion. “Th e stuff  you put on me burned like hell, so I made them lick it off. Turns out cats and vodka don’t mix”, Mikey explained around a mouthful of meat. He was definitely enjoying this too much. “Boyssss! Food!”, Ray yelled at them and tried very hard not to laugh when Gee and Frankie got to their feet and staggered towards them. Jesus Christ, it looked hilarious, Gerard had a serious twist to the left and ended up walking sideways, like a crab. Frank wasn’t that much better off, he face-planted into the dirt every few steps, because his legs spread out like a starfish. In the end he scooted on his belly, crawling army-style to their nest, where Karl was waiting with the second sausage. Ray would have killed for a camera. 

  


“Why is it always the two of you?”, Ray mused out loud when the two dorks started to devour their meal from both sides, like a wannabe rendition of Lady and the Tramp. “Shut ya pie hole, Raymond, I’m not as think as you drunk I am”, Frank slurred, which had Gerard resolving into another round of giggles. “Cats can’t get drunk”, he declared with total conviction, but his hiccup kinda destroyed the effect. “Dude, you’re hammered. Face it...-”, Ray started to say, but Frankie blurted inbetween: “YOU’RE NEVER GONNA MAKE IT!” Gerard burst out laughing again, rolled onto his back and wailed: “WELL IF YOU WANTED HOOOONESTYYY, THAT’S AAAALL YOU HAD TO SAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!” 

  


“I’m not even gonna pretend like I understand what’s happening”, Karl murmured next to Ray while Frank writhed on the ground in an intense air guitar session and Gerard bawled the rest of the lyrics at the top of his lungs. He had always had some pipes, but now, as a cat, he produced an insane sound level. Ray really didn’t want to know how this had to sound to human ears, hopefully the neighbors wouldn’t suspect cruelty to animals and call the police over this. 

  


Mikey was long done eating when the two drunkards finally finished their portions. Frank had started to toss little pieces of meat into the air and tried to catch them with his mouth halfway through, which had escalated into a huge sausage fight. Okay… bad choice of words. Anyway, it was everywhere, but Ray was too tired to tidy up and cuddled up to Mikey and Karl instead. “You okay, Mikey?”, he asked his friend and breathed a sigh of relief when he nodded. “Still hurts like a bitch, but I’m alright. Thanks for taking care of me”, he replied softly. Ray peered at Gee and Frankie and sighed when he discovered that they had curled up into each other. 

  


“I wonder whether those two dimwits are ever gonna realize that they belong with each other”, he whispered only for Mikey to hear. “Gee’s head over heels for him, I’ve been telling him for three years to go for it, but he won’t listen, he swears that Frank was straight as an arrow and that he would never love him back”, his friend responded. That would have been the moment for Ray to face-palm, but he had already learned the hard way that that wasn’t half as much fun with claws in the mix. “Sounds exactly like the crap excuses Frank gives me whenever I try to talk sense into him. I swear, if we ever turn back, I’m gonna handcuff them to each other until they get their shit together”, he vowed and he meant every single word. Mikey yawned next to him and murmured: “We gotta do something, they’re never gonna figure it out on their own.”

  


Just then Ray caught a glimpse of Gerard licking Frank’s face and telling him how beautiful he was while Frankie groomed his neck and purred his heart out. They really were painfully obvious. He vowed then and there to make them see it, too. God, he would do anything for a chance to be with Christa again, but those idiots could have it all and were too stupid to make anything of it! He already started plotting, but when he turned around to ask for Mikey’s help, his friend was out cold. Not today, then. But he _would_ convince them that they were meant for each other, and if it was the last thing he ever did. Ray only hoped that they weren’t dumb enough to try and have sex, since their tongues were not their only body parts with barbs, just saying…


	6. Safe and Sound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone, who left kudos or comments, this is what keeps me going <3

The morning after was nothing short of awful. Gerard barely made it outside before he puked his guts out and tried not to land face first in the mess. God, what the fuck had he done last night?! He had been sober for six fucking years! His days as an addict had kinda immunized him against the smell of vomit, but to his cat nose the stench was unbearable. Eventually he made it back inside and rinsed his mouth with water. He had never been so grateful for the tap before. Gerard still felt queasy, there was a dull throbbing in his skull and he already knew, that it was gonna be one of those hungover days, when he could eat all the time and still be hungry. Just great. The memories of last night were kinda hazy, he remembered singing and sausages and that was about it. Hopefully he hadn’t done anything dumb like confessing his love to Frank. He dragged himself back to bed, simply ignored the well-entertained looks of his friends and buried his nose in Frank’s fur before he drifted off to sleep again. Somebody kill him. Please. They had to find another way to treat Mikey’s leg, because he was _not_ doing that again. 

 

* * *

 

The next day Gerard, Ray and Karl went on yet another hunting trip. Mikey had gotten a bit better, but Frank had stayed with him, just in case. The wound still looked horrible, but it hadn’t gotten infected, apparently regular grooming and their little stunt with the vodka had done the trick, thank God for that. Yesterday evening they had even managed to drag his brother to the sink and build some kind of stairs out of cardboard boxes for ascend support. Mikey had drunk his weight in water and even been able to limp back to bed on his own after that. Ever so slowly Gerard allowed himself to hope that he might make it. Just like Frank had said – Mikes was a stubborn little fucker, he wasn’t that easy to kill.

So here they were, in yet another park looking for mice, birds, just anything edible. The problem was that it was snowing heavily and everything lay under an icy blanket of white. Gerard had no idea how cold it was, but if he were to guess, he would say around twenty degrees. They hadn’t been to this particular place before, it was pretty far from home, but Karl had sworn that they would be lucky here, so they hadn’t protested. However, they hadn’t even started to look for possible prey when Gerard set eyes on a young woman in black skinny jeans and a coat of the same color. He could barely make out her face under all the layers of scarves and a knitted hat, but what he did catch, was a familiar sound, that increased in volume as she walked towards them. 

  


_At the end of the world_  
Or the last thing I see  
You are never coming home, never coming home  
Could I? Should I? 

  


The Ghost of You. That was _Gerard’s voice_ playing over her headphones! He didn’t even think about what he was doing and jumped onto the walkway right in front of her. This had to be a sign, it just _had to_. “Please understand me”, Gerard said slowly and looked up at the woman with huge, pleading eyes. She stopped in her tracks and kneeled down, eyeing him curiously. But when she opened her mouth to speak, Gerard could have cried. Of course. German. Why couldn’t they have been stranded in Jersey, for fuck’s sake?! He hung his head and stared into the snow… Snow. SNOW! It hit him like a ton of bricks. 

  


Gerard jumped violently and dug his paw into the white mass, that covered the grass next to the parkway. He couldn’t believe that they hadn’t thought of this before! Ever so slowly he carved an ‘M’ into the untouched white canvas. The ‘C’ was a lot simpler, but the ‘R’ was tricky. There. MCR. He prayed to every deity, that might listen, that she would get it. She came closer and frowned before she let out another torrent of words, but this time Gerard definitely understood ‘My Chemical Romance’. “YEEEEESSSS! That’s us!”, he yelled, besides himself with excitement. He would not let this opportunity go to waste, it might very well be their last chance to at least find their way back to their friends.

  


Gerard quickly started to write a shaky “USA” into the snow. When he looked up at the woman again, she stared at him as if she were doubting her sanity (fair enough, he was a cat). After what felt like an eternity, but probably wasn’t more than a few seconds, she whispered: “English?” Gerard nodded vigorously, his heart beating a mile a minute. God, he was _so close_ to an actual conversation with a human being! “Okay. So you understand me?” Another nod and a huge load off his shoulders. “But what is it with My Chem, what… you’re a _cat!”_ , she exclaimed incredulously. Gerard hurried to find an untouched bit of snow and wrote his name. Halfway through he registered Ray next to him, doing the same. 

  


The girl stared at them, apparently rendered speechless. Then she murmured something in German, repeatedly shook her head and pinched her forearm through her thick black coat. Gerard would have crossed his fingers if he could. Please, please, _please,_ don’t run! Finally, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said: “Alright, are you seriously telling me that you are Gerard Way and Ray Toro!?” Gerard could have cried with joy. He nodded and let out a loud scream of triumph. Finally something good was happening to them for a change! “What the actual fuck...”, the girl muttered under her breath, still shaking her head in disbelief. “Okay, but where are Frank and Mikey?”, she wanted to know. Gerard gasped and dashed at the snow again to write: ‘M HURT, F WITH HIM’. That woman was the answer to his prayers, she could take care of his brother! 

  


That was when Karl crawled out from where he had been hiding under a bush. “Friend of yours?”, she asked them and Gerard nodded again, pointing urgently at his last message. “Okay, I must be insane to talk to a bunch of  _cats_ , but do you want me to come and see whether I can help your brother?” Fucking finally! Gerard took off into the direction of their hideout, turning around every few yards to see whether she was following him. It didn’t even take them ten minutes to reach their destination, even if it seemed like an hour to him. Karl went inside to get their friends, because there was no way the girl could squeeze through the narrow gap underneath the metal grate, that secluded the inner courtyard with the non-existent back door. 

  


Soon Mikey came limping outside, followed by Frank and Karl. “Gee, what’s wrong? Karl only said that we had to come immediately”, his brother wanted to know. While he crawled through the opening and out on the street, wincing when he had to put weight on his injured foot. The girl crouched down and said: “Mikey? Hi, my name is Vanessa. Gerard told me that you’re hurt?” Needless to say – Mikey’s face was priceless. Gerard and Ray explained to him and Frank how they had met the girl while she tied a clean pocket tissue around his brother’s leg and secured it with a hair tie. When she was done, she stretched and said: “My flat is only a few blocks away. Do you want to come home with me and warm up? I would like to take Mikey to a vet as soon as possible, that wound looks nasty. You can stay as long as you like, I don’t have much room or any cat supplies, but it’s definitely better than living in the streets in this weather.”

  


Gerard sighed wistfully. Warming up sounded great, seriously, the only time he was truly warm these days was when they all curled up for the night and shared body heat. He was so ready for a heater at full capacity, maybe even warm water and the knowledge that he wouldn’t have to catch his next meal himself. In the meantime Vanessa scooped up his brother and carefully held him to her chest, shielding him against the snow with her thick wool scarf. ‘A few blocks’ turned out to be nearly twenty minutes of walking. Actually that wouldn’t have been a problem, but since it was freezing cold, snowing and they hadn’t eaten since the day before, Gerard was knackered when they finally arrived. Vanessa led them up a flight of stairs and unlocked a door before she ushered them inside and set Mikey to the ground.

  


The first thing Gerard registered was the warmth. It permeated his body and seeped into his core, as if he were diving into a hot bubble bath. He sighed quietly and sniffed the air. Vanessa’s scent was everywhere, intermingled with a second female smell he couldn’t quite place. But there was more: brushwood, bee’s wax, cinnamon, apples… that made sense, Christmas was only a few days away. Their host toed off her boots and led them down the hallway and into a living room. There was the tree, complete with lights, garlands, an angel on top of it and a bunch of presents on the floor. A nativity scene by the window, a huge orange couch with a dark coffee table, a TV and a few cupboards completed the furniture. After dwelling in the dirt of a theater in ruins, it literally looked like heaven. Ray and Frankie had already found the heater and were pressing their shivering bodies against it. 

“ Make yourselves at home. My flat mate is already home for Christmas, but please stay out of her room until I can ask her whether she’s okay with you guys staying here, okay? It’s the one, that looks like a Fall Out Boy stalker’s wet dream, you’re gonna know it when you see it. Uhm… I don’t really have anything to eat, I was about to go grocery shopping when I met you in Wohlers Park. So… I’ll just get you some water and go grab some food, okay?”, Vanessa proposed  left to collect a few shopping bags  when Gerard nodded emphatically.  Now that he could get a good look at her without all the thick winter clothes, he estimated she was in her early twenties. She was petite, had long, dark brown hair, matching eyes and flawless, pale skin.  Before he knew it, she was out of the door and they sat in the living room on their own.

“So… this is a house, yeah?”, Karl said slowly as soon as the sound of her footsteps had faded away down the stairway. “You’ve never seen one from the inside?”, Ray wanted to know curiously. “No, I’ve always lived in the streets. Except for my last life, that was weird, and the first I spent on a ship”, their friend explained while he cautiously sniffed the couch. “Wait… are you telling me that cats _actually have nine lives?_ And you remember all of it?”, Gerard blurted out incredulously. Come on, that was just an old wives’ tale for little children, enough was enough. “Not everything, it’s kinda blurry, but I still know where I lived and how I died. This is my fifth life. Everybody says that there are nine, but I guess I’m gonna find out for myself. Why, how many do humans have?”, Karl stated with a shrug. Actually Gerard had thought that there wasn’t much, that could still take him by surprise, but apparently he had been wrong. “We only have one, what the heck, that’s impossible! Like… _how?!_ ”, Frank answered with huge eyes. 

  


That was how they all curled up by the heater and listened to Karl telling them about his past. He had been born in a town by the sea and lived in the streets until one fateful day, when he had sneaked onto one of those big wooden ships to hunt for rats. Unfortunately it had sailed while he was on board and he had been trapped. Only a few days later there had been huge balls of iron and fire and noise until the ship had sunk and Karl had gone down with it. Gerard had no idea how long wooden ships with canons had been around, but that had to have happened at least 200 years ago, if not more. 

  


Next Karl had lived in a city. There had been water everywhere and people had traveled with boats inbetween the houses. Everybody had worn huge, colorful clothes and big white hair and once a year there had been this enormous, loud celebration where humans put colorful things over their faces. Venice, maybe? Baroque time? Anyway, he had died of some disease, that had haunted the city. Thousands of people had died and strange creatures in long black coats and masks like raven beaks had gone from house to house. Gerard shuddered violently and cuddled up to Frank for comfort. Plague doctors… those really crept him out, Jesus Christ, Karl really seemed to have had a streak of bad luck!

  


After that he remembered a city with big houses and horse carriages. Humans, who talked like Vanessa, with large black hats, music, lights in the night and a house full of strange people like a bearded woman, a dwarf, a giant and even humans flying through the air. Until it all had gone up in flames and a fire had destroyed everything in sight and Karl with it. That sounded a bit like New York of the nineteenth century, a very wild guess, but there had been a huge fire in the 1830s, if Gerard remembered correctly.

  


The fourth life had ended very quickly, since he had spent it somewhere really cold. There had been people in metal hats with long sticks, that made an awful lot of noise. Karl only remembered the shaking of the earth, the gnawing hunger and the cold, that had ultimately killed him. One of the World Wars, Stalingrad maybe? And just when Gerard thought that it couldn’t get any worse, Karl told them about a brightly lit room, metal cages, humans in white clothes and overwhelming pain. God, if he had been able to cry, Gerard would have bawled his eyes out for his friend. How could one have so much bad luck?! Karl had lived through the darkest moments of humanity, how was he not mentally broken beyond repair? If they hadn’t already promised to take care of him in case they ever managed to break the curse, Gerard would have done it right now. He vowed to give that poor guy the life he deserved, an entire room full of an enormous cat tree, caviar, cream, a huge feather pillow in front of a fire place, the whole works. 

  


After Karl had shared his life story, they got up and explored the flat. There was a small bathroom full of irritating smells. Gerard had never realized how much stuff women smeared all over their bodies, it was gross, really. There were all kinds of soaps, lotions, make up, two flat irons and an eyeliner on the floor next to the sink. Once they managed to open the lid, Ray and Frank explained to Karl how to use a toilet. He jumped with fright when Frankie flushed it and nearly would have fallen in, it was hilarious.

Their next stop was the kitchen, a relatively small room with wooden cabinets, a table and two bar stools. All kinds of spices, oils and the like were distributed all over the place and Gerard jumped up on the counter to inhale the scent of the coffee machine deeply into his lungs. God, that scent was still the best in the world, even as a cat. Alright, the second best, after Frank, but you get the drift. Gerard had no idea whether coffee was a good idea in his current body, but he would damn well have some at the first opportunity, to hell with the consequences. He lost interest pretty soon, since there was no food around, so they all took a drink from the bowl of water Vanessa had placed on the ground for them and moved on. 

Next to the kitchen a door was slightly ajar and opened to reveal a bedroom. Grey carpet, a double bed and every square inch of the walls plastered with Fall Out Boy. “Jesus fucking Christ, this is FOB hell”, Mikey muttered under his breath and eyed the life-sized Pete Wentz cut-out on the door disdainfully. “What the heck is wrong with his eyes? He looks like somebody punched him”, Karl declared with a frown. Yeah, that was about right, though admittedly, Gerard and Frank both had looked worse at times. Gerard was still snickering about the others’ attempts to explain the magnificence of make up to a cat when Frank jumped up and grabbed the handle of the last door. It turned out to be Vanessa’s bedroom. 

The first thing, that caught his eye, was his own face. There was an MCR poster above the bed, right next to Nirvana, Kurt and Billie Joe Armstrong. Their host did have an excellent taste in music, he had to give her that. In the meantime Ray and Frank had discovered the Les Paul in the corner and were plucking the strings with their claws. Not really their usual performance. Luckily Vanessa returned before the mood could shift and they all started to agonize over what they had lost even more than usual.

  


She called for them a few minutes later and presented them with four plates of cat food. “Mikey, I think you shouldn’t eat, yet, I want to take you to the vet and they might have to treat the wound under anesthetic”, she said and placed a big transport box on the ground, that reeked of an old lady and at least three different cats. “I borrowed this from a neighbor, I’m afraid they won’t let me into the waiting room if I show up with you in my arms”, Vanessa explained apologetically. Mikey growled grumpily and trotted into the purple plastic monstrosity to curl up on the pillow their host had placed inside.

  


Karl was already wolfing down his portion of food, but Frank and Ray were still sniffing theirs skeptically. It really wasn’t the greatest thing Gerard could imagine, but since he was starving, he tried it anyway. Before he knew it, Vanessa had whisked his brother away and they were on their own again. God, he hoped that Mikey would be okay, his absence was freaking him the fuck out! Ray and Karl were already soundly asleep on the couch, but he was still sitting in the hallway and staring at the door. Suddenly Frank appeared next to him and huddled up to him. “He’s gonna be fine Gee, bad weeds grow tall. He’s made it this far, everything’s gonna be alright, you’ll see”, he whispered and buried his nose beneath Gerard’s chin before he started grooming his fur. Gerard let out a heavy sigh and felt the tension in his shoulders dissipate. He would love nothing more than to believe those words right away and drown in Frank’s touch. But so much had gone wrong recently, he had kinda lost faith in miracles.


	7. Maya The Psychic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the comments and kudos, you guys are amazing <3

Mikey sat on his haunches in that stupid transport box and stared gloomily through the bars. There were two dogs, another cat and a rabbit in the waiting room with them. The dogs were barking at each other, the rabbit was nibbling on a bit of hay in its box and the cat snorted in amusement before she murmured: “How did such dense creatures ever manage to survive on their own?” Fair question. But before Mikey could think of a witty response, Vanessa was called into the vet’s office and his sensitive nose was assaulted by stinging disinfectant and the stench of dozens of animals. Yikes. 

  


He was dragged out of the box by an elderly, bald man and placed on a shiny steel table. Next thing he knew, the guy grabbed his tail and… FUCK! Yep, that was a clinical thermometer. Bastard. Then he pulled at Mikey’s chin to look at his teeth. Without washing his hands. He had half a mind to bite his stupid fingers, but that would have been kinda counterprod-… OW! Fuck, that motherfucker had rammed a huge needle into his back! That was bigger than a human vaccination, what the fuck, it felt like he had punched a hole into his skin! One thing was for sure, if Gee would have to go through this, there would be bloody murder, his brother and needles didn’t mix, especially not if they were that size!

  


Luckily the guy decided to finally inspect his leg. Mikey hissed when he cleaned it with antiseptic, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the stunt his friends had pulled with the vodka. He hadn’t understood a single word, that had been said so far, but now Vanessa crouched down in front of him, gently cradled his face and whispered: “Listen, he said he has to deep-cleanse the wound and sew it up. He wanted to knock you out, but I told him that a regional anesthetic would be enough. Try to hold still, okay? Otherwise you’re gonna be out for a few hours and he will have to keep you here over night.” Mikey nodded immediately, he would do anything if only he wouldn’t have to stay here. He flinched when he felt the sting of yet another needle and gritted his teeth through the whole thing. There was the buzz of a clipper, a lot of movement around his leg, the sound of scissors and finally the snap of gloves being removed. 

  


Just when he decided to overlook the rough handling at the beginning, his head was forced into a plastic cone and he heard someone say the word ‘Kastration’. He didn’t need to speak German to understand  _that_ . Mikey bared his fangs and hissed at the smug bastard in his stupid white coat. Over his rotting corpse! The guy laughed and went on talking, but Mikey stared him down. When nobody else was looking, he raised his paw and performed his best attempt at the ‘watching you’ gesture, narrowing his eyes and growling dangerously. He even tried to say ‘fuck you’ and succeeded, judging by the incredulous and borderline panicked expression on the vet’s face. The man started to sweat, Mikey could smell it. Good. He would definitely brief the others in case any of them were ever dragged here, as well. 

  


They were ushered out of the office very quickly after that. Mikey heard something like ‘hundred’ and ‘euro’ being said at the counter and a shocked gasp from Vanessa. He bit his lips and scratched the stupid cone around his neck. Whatever it had cost, he would repay her double and triple. Judging by what he had seen of her flat, she didn’t have an awful lot of money, a college student, probably. And still she had spent what little she had on them, bought them food and taken care of his injury. They already owed her so much, but he was pretty sure that she would help them get back home on top of it. He had no idea how they were ever supposed to make up for all that.

 

* * *

 

 

Gerard scratched his neck where a few hairs had caught in the flea collar. Vanessa had given them each a bath after she had returned with his brother. She had also poured some clear liquid onto the skin of their necks to take care of any helminthiasis they might have caught. Gerard really didn’t want to know how much Mikey’s treatment, the collars, the meds (his brother had to take antibiotics), the cat shampoo and the comb she was currently trying to pull through Ray’s matted fur had cost.

  


Actually she had wanted to shave off the worst of the mats, but Ray had outright refused. Gerard had expected nothing else, their band mom didn’t let any one  mess with his fro,  l et alone cut it. That was why he was sitting in Vanessa’s lap and gritting his teeth while she worked through the knots. No pain, no gain, Ray only had himself to blame... None of them were gloating, of course not, they would never! In the meantime Gerard busied himself with typing on Vanessa’s laptop. It was their only way of communication and really tricky to do with cat paws, but he managed to write down an ultra short version of what had led to their current predicament while Ray was cursing in the background. Vanessa was almost done torturing his friend when he finished it and there was quite an impressive pile of brown hair on the coffee table to prove it.

  


She read over the few sentences and said: “Okay. Wow… uhm.. Do you have any idea how to undo this?” Well, if they had, they certainly would have done it already, wouldn’t they? After another round of careful typing on Gerard’s part, she told them what exactly had happened after their sudden disappearance. Apparently the internet had blown up, there had been want ads all over social media, newspapers and even news reports of various TV channels. James had given countless interviews, distributed leaflets and searched the city on his own account. The police had scoured the surroundings of the hotel for clues, but of course it had all been fruitless. Eventually everybody had gone home, only two or three days before they had finally found the hotel. Officially the search was still going on, but Gerard actually doubted that, he hadn’t seen a police officer come near their hideout in the theater, not once, even though it would be an ideal place to keep hostages.

  


On Ray’s inquiry they learned that Pedicone had been notably absent from the limelight, no surprise there, after all he was the one, who had tried to kill them and the scratches and bite marks from their fight would have been very hard to explain. Plus, the release of their album had been postponed indefinitely. Gerard was really fucking pissed about that, they had put so much work into it, Danger Days was such an awesome concept, they just _had_ to get it out there! Vanessa asked them whether there was anybody she could call, who wouldn’t declare her insane or hang up on her immediately. Mikey suggested Pete Wentz, but while Gerard agreed that the guy knew the weirdest people and might be able to get them help, none of them could remember his phone number. 

  


The next best thing was googling animal transformation, but all that produced were fantasy movies, werewolf stuff and even some weird ass fanfiction about Fall Out Boy, Panic, The Used and them, where some of them grew wings, Bert transformed into a tabby cat (of fucking course) and bassists swapped bodies. It was a total dead end. Reversing magic spells didn’t go much better, there were loads of people, who claimed that they could do it (for various amounts of money, of course), but no clear DIY instructions, at least none, that made sense. In the end Vanessa looked up local witches and magicians and contacted a few via e-mail. The rest of the day was spent taking photos of them under the Christmas tree  and googling cat breeds until they found out that Ray was in fact a Selkirk Rex and Mikey an Egyptian Mau. Not that it got them any closer to figuring out how to end the curse, but it was still nice to know. Next they watch ed a few of the interviews James had given. Gerard had never realized how good of a friend he had in him, Dewees had really worked his ass off to find them.

  


Eventually Vanessa placed a few big, soft pillows on the floor around the heater and covered them all with fluffy blankets. Gerard sighed happily and cuddled up to Frank, who had sneaked onto his pillow with him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so content. It was warm, he had a belly full of food, was actually clean for the first time in ages, could hold the love of his life in his arms and had found them a way back into civilization. Maybe they would even become human again tomorrow. That was an upwards trend if he had ever heard of one.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning Vanessa woke them up with great news. One of the witches had responded to her e-mails and had offered to meet them. So they all piled into her old, run-down Toyota and were on their way in no time. After a good hour’s drive, they arrived at a small, average house. Gerard never would have suspected a witch’s home behind the respectable yellow facade and the neat front garden. The door opened to reveal a relatively young woman in black. Her red hair was pinned up on her head, she wore a golden bracelet on her left upper arm and about half a dozen necklaces with strange symbols around her neck. Friendly blue eyes took them in as she smiled at them and gestured them inside.

  


To Gerard’s surprise, the interior of the house matched the outside. He had expected at least a few skulls, pentagrams, a black cat or a raven, cauldrons and other cool, obscure stuff. No such luck. The witch, who introduced herself as Maya, seemed to be just a normal person with an eccentric taste in clothes. Gerard was actually a little disappointed. Vanessa placed her laptop on the ground for communication and explained to Maya what had happened. Unfortunately the witch didn’t speak English very well, so that they had to rely on Vanessa for interpreting, which made things even more cumbersome.

  


The two women were immersed in conversation and Maya seemed to grow angrier and angrier by the second. Her eyes were flashing with fury and she bared her teeth before she stormed off towards a nondescript door and Vanessa told them to follow. On their way down a narrow staircase to the cellar, she explained to them that whoever had cursed them, had broken the supreme law of witchcraft, which was to keep it a secret from outsiders. Apparently most witches cast small spells and brewed potions for paying customers, but nothing drastic enough to be disclosed. Whatever the fortune teller had done to them was  crass , a major violation of the Witches’ Statue of Secrecy. What the heck, Gerard never would have guessed that that was even a thing! How  m any witches were they talking about? Like, hundreds, thousands?! Was this a sub-culture or  a  full-on Harry Potter style secret society?

  


They reached the bottom of the stairs and yeah, that was more like it. Dark cabinets, crystal decanters full of colorful liquids, all kinds of animal’s bones, dried herbs hanging from the ceiling and blackened walls. “Okay, she wants to know who of you could see the best what that woman did, she needs you to remember the day you were cursed as  precisely as possible”, Vanessa said and Gerard  raised his paw.  After all he had been the one, who had been sitting right in front of her when it had happened. He was told to jump up on the dusty table, link his paws with both Maya and Vanessa and close his eyes. Fair enough. What harm would it do?

  


A reverberant voice, that sounded like Maya, said something in German, but he was pretty sure that he hadn’t heard it with his ears. Was she _inside his head?!_ What kind of fucked up mind game was she playing?! Gerard wanted to open his eyes and tear his paws away from the women’s hands, but he found that he was frozen in place and couldn’t move at all, no matter how hard he tried. Fuck, this was freaking him out, what was happening to him?! “Gerard, relax, it’s okay. This is the only way for us to talk without the laptop and for Maya to see your memory”, Vanessa’s soothing voice cut through his panic. “This isn’t real, that’s impossible!”, he tried to say, but his voice had the same creepy sound to it as theirs and he felt neither his throat nor his mouth move. This was a dream, it had to be!

  


“Gerard, you’re a frickin’ _cat_ , but this is where you draw the line?”, Vanessa chuckled good-naturedly. Well… point. Okay. He could do this. Whatever it was they wanted from him. Maya spoke again and Vanessa translated. Gerard did as he was told and thought back to the moment in that tent. It seemed like a lifetime ago. He focused as best he could and saw the memory unfold before his eyes. It wasn’t very precise, some of it was blurred and there were a few blank spots, but it was enough to get the general idea. When it was over, Maya told them that it was a pretty primitive curse, since the caster had had to rely on the powder to get it to work and that the length of the formula hinted at an inexperienced witch. 

  


Unfortunately that wasn’t helping very much. None of them could remember the exact wording of the incantation, only that it had sounded like gibberish. Maya tried a complicated ritual to break the curse, that required incense, a chant  and a bath in salt, oil and all kinds of herbs, but all it did was drench Gerard’s fur in slimy  liquid. Not quite the effect he had hoped for. He allowed Vanessa to clean him up a little, but he would definitely need another  deep cleanse once they returned to her flat. At th is point Gerard didn’t even care anymore. Once again they had had a lead and once again it had turned out to be a dead end. He had no fucking clue what they were supposed to try  next . 

  


Gerard hardly registered how Maya promised to inform the German Council of Witches  and report what had happened, but what did catch his attention was  the bit Vanessa translated just before she was about to open the  front  door: “She says that something was off, the aura felt male, although it was a woman, who cursed you.” No. Fucking. Way. “What if it was Mike? All of it? That would make so much sense!”, Ray voiced his thoughts before Gerard could even open his mouth. That fucking bastard, by now there was literally nothing he would put past him.  Once again the same old question: What had they ever done to deserve this?  And h ow could they not have seen it coming!?

  


The drive back to Vanessa’s flat was silent, everybody was immersed in their own thoughts.  Gerard would never admit it to anyone but himself, but he was terrified. The prospect of spending the rest of his life as a cat scared the living shit out of him. Teenagers were nothing compared to that. He closed his eyes and curled up into a tight knot. Would he ever walk out on a stage and sing that song again? Would he ever get to look into Frank’s eyes, his  _real_ ones, and finally say the words, that had haunted him for three years now? Would he ever get to call him his, stand proudly by his side for the cameras, for all the world to see? Go down on one knee before him, put a ring on his finger, grow old with him? Impossible dreams and agonizing fantasies, nothing more. Not unless they found a way to break the curse. But after their latest deep hit, hoping for a happy ending had become a nearly impossible task.

  


In the end it was Vanessa, who broke the silence as soon as she plonked down onto  her couch. “There  _has_ to be a way to undo this, come on, what does  Pedicone want from you?  What did he do or say the days before it happened? ”, she asked them wearily. Gerard already wanted to remind her that they wouldn’t be running around as cats if they knew, when Mikey gasped for breath. His brother had been grooming himself and sat frozen in shock with eyes as wide as saucers and his tongue still hanging out of his gaping mouth. Gerard wold have bubbled over with laughter if this weren’t such a serious matter. 

  


“Oh my God, we’re so fucking  _stupid!”_ , Mikey exclaimed after an eternity of tense silence. “ What , spit it out already!”, Ray pushed impatiently, his tail flicking from side to side. “ He asked me  a few days before it happen ed whether  I was sure that  Frank and Gee  were nothing but friends”, his brother said slowly and exchanged a meaningful look with Ray. What the heck did that have to do with anything? This was such a dangerous topic, why did Mikey have to go and  open that particular can of worms ?! Ray sighed heavily, nodded and murmured: “She  or... he or… whatever,  _they_ did say that they were too blind to see, which I totally agree with.” “Exactly! I mean, come on, it’s in every storybook, how have we  not  thought of this before?”, Mikey added excitedly. 

  


Gerard had the sinking feeling that he knew where this was going. “Come on, kiss already! And don’t even try and pretend that you don’t want it, you’re fucking obvious, _both of you!_ ”, his brother demanded in his very best no-nonsense voice. Wait… what?! _B-both_ of them? No, no, no, that couldn’t be, Gerard would know if Frank felt the same, that was absurd… right? But when he glanced at him and took in the way  Frankie stared at his paws and bit his lips, he couldn’t help but doubt his firm belief that his best friend had only purely platonic feelings for him. Frank would have laughed it off if it were made up out of thin air, wouldn’t he? Gerard didn’t know what to think anymore, but he had reached a point where he would even risk confessing his love to Frank for a chance to break the curse. 

  


Gerard swallowed hard, took a deep breath and sat down next to  him ,  but he still refused to participate in any way. This wasn’t how he had imagined their first real kiss, not at all, Frank wouldn’t even look at him! Gerard could have cried, but he leaned in anyway and  hesitantly pressed his lips to Frank’s. It was weird. His nose was wet and cold, his lips too thin and the tips of his fangs  dug uncomfortably into Gerard’s skin. They had groomed each other a few times during the last weeks, but this was new. New and uncomfortable and just… wrong. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, maybe golden light, epic music, a rush of magic, anything, but nothing happened. Absolutely nothing  at all . Until Frank’s lips twitched under his and a quiet sob tore out of his throat. 

  


A firework of emotions exploded in Gerard’s chest when Frank kissed him back. Overwhelming happiness, adoration and love, that was anchored deep in the very core of his soul. He never wanted to let go again. Gerard was light-headed, he whimpered quietly and sucked Frank’s lower lip between his teeth while he grabbed his broad shoulders for support. A smooth tongue met his  as a  desperate moan reverberated  through his entire body and made his knees go weak. It would have been absolutely perfect if Frank’s beard hadn’t been… wait.  _Beard?!_ Gerard pulled back with a startled yelp and was met with confused hazel eyes, messy dark hair,  soft pink lips  and an expanse of inked skin. Simultaneously a bang and a curse behind them indicated that either Ray or Mikey had fallen off the couch. Judging by h i s brother’ s booming laughter, probably Ray.

  


N one of that mattered at the moment. They were still crouch ed on all fours,  naked and it was painfully awkward, but Gerard simply couldn’t look away from Frank’s eyes.  Everything he had ever wanted was right in front of him, he only had to whisper three little words and it  could finally be his. But now that he was human again, all the reasons why he had  kept it all inside for so long came rushing back with a vengeance. The band. Their friendship. Gerard knew without a doubt that he would shatter beyond repair if this thing between them destroy ed everything he held dear. Knowing his track record when it came to relationships, that was only a matter of time.  Could he put himself at risk like that?  Suddenly the light behind Frank’s eyes went out and he blinked a few times before he said: “Alright, so which one of us is the beauty and who was the beast?” 

  


Gerard smiled and fought hard against the tears, that burned in his eyes. Frank  had given him an easy way out. They would laugh it off and continue with their lives as if nothing had happened. Everything would be fine, they would remain best friends, there would be movie nights and writing sessions, they would tour their new album, record the next one, play together, talk through the night… 

  


He had missed his chance.


	8. Falling In Love Will Kill You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last regular chapter, thank you so much to everyone, who kept reading <3

Luckily Vanessa was one of those women, who owned about thrice as many blankets as any normal person could ever need. Their clothes had stayed behind in their hotel room, which was why they were facing a disconcerting lack of textiles. As soon as they were more or less covered, Gerard took in his friends’ state. They all sported pretty impressive beards, but Ray and Frank were the only ones, who looked good with it. That was the Way curse for you, neither him nor his brother could grow a decent mustache. Their hair was tousled (Ray’s was a literal rat’s nest) and Gerard would kill for a toothbrush. Mikey’s leg had healed miraculously, even though a pretty impressive scar on the side of his calf remained and Ray couldn’t see very much without his glasses, but apart from that they seemed to be fine.

 

“Uhm… guys, do you still understand me?”, Karl wanted to know from his spot on the heater. Wait, hang on, what the heck!? Was that an after-effect of the curse? Would it be permanent? “Rad, we could make a shit-ton of money as cat whisperers”, Frank deadpanned immediately. Gerard smiled sadly. They were back to their usual banter. But now that what he had wanted so desperately had been reality for a few painfully perfect seconds… He couldn’t go back. There was no way his friendship with Frank was ever gonna be enough again after that kiss. God, he should have said something when he had had the chance! Gerard felt his eyes water and tried to wipe them inconspicuously on his blanket, but of course it was just his luck that Frank caught the movement and eyed him worriedly. “Allergic to cats, remember?”, Gerard ground out with a fake smile. It wasn’t even a complete lie, he definitely did feel his nose close up, but his tears had nothing to do with Karl and everything with the fact that he wanted nothing more than to wrap himself around Frank and never let go again.

 

Just then Vanessa asked from the hallway whether she could come in and placed her cellphone, a landline phone and her laptop on the table. Gerard immediately made a beeline for one of the phones while Frankie grabbed the other one and Vanessa set up her computer for Ray to skype. Mikey snatched it from his hands and typed in their parent’s number. Gerard had no idea what time it was back home in Jersey, were their parents even awake? But then his mother’s voice sounded from the speaker and he had to bite back a sob. God, he had missed her so much! “Momma? It’s us, we’re alright and we love you”, Mikey managed to say before they all burst into tears.

 

They spent hours talking to their families. Mikey and Ray called their wives while Frank rang up his father and grandparents. Gerard simply sat on the couch with Karl on the armrest, petted his friend and reveled in his humanity like he never had before. Hands with opposable thumbs, a reasonable sense of smell (on that note – he really could use a shower, there were still remnants of Maya’s oil bath in his hair), no talons to hurt himself whenever he wasn’t careful and the ability to speak. He had only realized how much he had always taken that for granted once it had been gone.

 

Eventually Vanessa returned from yet another shopping trip with bags full of food and sanitary articles. Body wash, hair wash, toothbrushes, shaving cream, razors, deep conditioner and cheap drugstore glasses for Ray, anti-allergy tablets for Gerard. On top of that she produced a few packs of boxer briefs and a carry-all full of men’s clothing. Apparently it was her brother’s, who was visiting his girlfriend’s family somewhere in France with their parents over the holidays. Vanessa was a godsend, really, he had no idea how to ever repay her for everything she had done for them.

 

Showering was better than anything Gerard could have ever imagined. He stood under the warm spray and cried tears of joy. His human body felt strange and unfamiliar under his hands as he lathered it up, but he wouldn’t have exchanged it for the world. Gerard had to literally force himself to hurry up and finish. When he stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, he felt better than he had in weeks. He wore comfy, a little too big sweat pants, an ACDC shirt and thick wool socks, his beard was gone and he had scrubbed his teeth spotlessly clean. Gerard stretched until his spine popped and sighed contentedly. That was when an irresistible smell caught his attention and his mouth watered as if he were a Pavlovian dog. COFFEE!

 

Gerard nearly stumbled over his own feet in his haste to get into the kitchen, he wasn’t used to two legs any more. Vanessa grinned at him and placed a huge mug of his life elixir in his grabby hands. “I was wondering which one of you would show up first”, she said casually, before she put sugar and milk on the table and poured some for his friends, as well. Gerard didn’t even bother with anything and gulped it down black. He moaned deep in his throat when the familiar taste burst in his mouth. This, right here, was what he had missed the most about being human.

 

The rest of the day went by in a haze of phone calls while Karl slept in Mikey’s lap. They talked to their manager, publicist, James, a few friends and Maya, once again. Everyone was careful not to tell anybody what had really happened, who would have believed them anyway? All they said was that they had been trapped, but managed to escape and that they were safe now. Maya was a huge help, she had a contact within the German Council of Witches and assured them that they wouldn’t have to worry about the police, someone would take care of everything. She only asked them to come up with some kind of believable story of what had happened during the last weeks.

 

Well, they had woken up in a dark cellar, had been fed through a flap in the door and hadn’t seen a single living soul the entire time. Then one day they had found the door unlocked, made a run for it and got lost in the city, which was how they had met Vanessa and Karl. Easy as that. They would write a dark album about being kept hostage to go with it and nobody would be the wiser

 

Once they reached that point, night had fallen and Gerard was _starving_. Vanessa ordered them each a huge pizza. Gerard had never wolfed down his food like this before. He could have sworn that it was the best he had ever had and it was a damn sacrifice that he shared his salami with Karl. Afterwards they watched ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ together. Vanessa offered them beer or vine, but they all declined alcohol in any form, the vodka incident still fresh in their memories. The best part of the movie night was watching Karl, who sat in front of the screen with his tail twitching every few seconds, trying to catch the moving figures. He would flinch every time the static of the CRT TV’s glass stung his nose, but go at it again only a few minutes later, no matter how often they explained to him that he wasn’t gonna be able to eat Jack Skellington.

* * *

 

Eventually it was time to turn in for the night. Vanessa offered to take the couch, so that two of them could sleep in her room and two in her flat mate’s. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, which was how Gerard and Mikey ended up in a narrow double bed with actual FOB pillowcases. Karl made himself at home between them and was out like a light immediately, purring softly when they petted him. Gerard had a feeling that not even that could save him from the dressing down his baby brother probably had in store for him.

 

Mikey simply stared into Gerard’s eyes until he became so uncomfortable that he caved, looked away and sat through whatever was to come without complaining. “You know exactly what you did, what the fuck is wrong with you?”, his baby brother stated matter-of-factly. Gerard sighed, rolled on his back and covered his eyes with his hands. He really, really didn’t want to hear it. “I can’t risk it, Mikes, the band, our friendship, I would fuck it all up, I know it!”, he ground out against his palms. His brother didn’t look very impressed when Gerard glanced at him through his fingers.

 

“Listen, Gee… we don’t know whether it might cause problems with the band if you give it a go, but I’m absolutely certain that it will if you _don’t_. I mean… come on, you love him, how long can you take watching him hook up with other people, huh? Two years? Three? We both know that it’s gonna break you eventually. You’ve wanted him for _years_ and now that you know that he feels the same, you get cold feet? Are you fucking kidding me?!”, Mikey said impatiently. Gerard bit his lips and felt his cheeks heat up. He wished he could believe that it were that simple. “He never said that he felt the same”, he whispered dejectedly. Mikey groaned in frustration and retorted: “Of course he fucking does, dumbass, otherwise you'd still be a cat! Have you ever heard of a spell being broken by a snog with a random stranger? True love's kiss!” Oh. Gerard couldn’t exactly argue with that. He remembered the way Frank had looked at him with bright, hopeful eyes until Gerard’s stupid brain had gotten in the way. His internal battle must have shown on his face and that had been it.

 

In the meantime Mikey got out of bed and nudged Karl until he woke up. Their friend complained grumpily, but his brother declared: “I’m gonna lock Gee and Frankie into this room until they pull their heads out of their asses. You do remember that one conversation we had, right? Trust me, you don’t want to-…” Karl’s eyes widened comically and he was out of the bed and outside in the hallway before Mikey could even finish. Gerard had no idea what his brother was talking about, but he had bigger problems, he already felt his nerves churn in his stomach. What was he supposed to say? He had no idea how to act around Frank! “Mikes? I… what if I...”, he stammered nervously, but his brother was already out of the door.

 

Gerard held his breath and counted the quiet ticking of the (Fall Out Boy) clock on the wall. Exactly three minutes and seventeen seconds later the door was carefully pushed open and Frank slipped into the room. Gerard couldn’t see anything but his silhouette in the dark, but he could tell that he was just as tense as him nevertheless. They stared at each other for a few painfully awkward seconds until Gerard swallowed the lump in his throat and murmured: “Come to bed, Frankie, you’re shivering.” Frank hesitantly sat down on the edge of the mattress and slipped underneath the single comforter with him. They laid next to each other, stiff as boards and their gazes locked on the ceiling.

 

It was fucking awful, but it made Gerard realize three things with absolute clarity. One: their friendship was probably damaged already, the cracks would always be there. Two: he couldn’t stand this awkward tension between them, no matter what he did, it could hardly become worse. And three: he would never forgive himself if he let another opportunity pass him by. Plus, Mikey would kill him in the morning and Ray would probably help him hide his body.

 

“You know… when Jamia and Lindsey broke up with us… after you had moved out, I realized how much I needed you with me. Mikey keeps telling me that it started long before that, but that’s when I realized that… that… I l-love you”, Gerard told the ceiling. He didn’t dare look at Frank, but he heard his breath hitch and movement beside him. “Gee, I’ve been head over heels for you ever since I met you”, Frank whispered quietly. Gerard’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t believe it, how… _how_ had he never noticed anything!? God, he was so out of his depth here. Gerard had been intimate with men before, but never like this, never with feelings in the mix.

 

He bit his lips and fought down a bout of hysteric laughter before he asked: “So… do you… want to be my boyfriend?” How old were they, fifteen? Frankie’s adorable giggle was the only warning he got before a warm body collided with his chest as Frank threw himself into his arms. “You forgot ‘tick yes, no, maybe’”, he quipped before they both burst out laughing. Finally, it felt natural again. “Is that a yes?”, Gerard ground out and wiped his eyes. His sides were hurting, this was ridiculous. “Of course it is, I’ve been waiting nine years for this”, Frank replied, still chuckling to himself. Gerard’s face hurt from smiling too wide and he literally couldn’t breathe. It felt like his heart wanted to burst out of his chest.

 

“Can we, like… take this slow? I really don’t wanna fuck it up”, he managed to say after a while. Gerard had never gone all the way with another man and he was freaking out a little at the prospect of having sex with Frank. He wanted it, no question about that, but not like this. Gerard had spent _years_ dreaming of that moment, he wanted it to be perfect. Not in somebody else’s bed, with a life-sized cut-out of Pete Wentz watching, Mikey and Ray overhearing them and spit for lube. “Of course, whatever you want. As long as you kiss me goodnight and I get to cuddle with you”, Frank agreed, his fingertips caressing Gerard’s cheekbone. He couldn’t believe how he had ever gotten lucky enough to have this. Gerard carefully lifted Frank’s chin. Their kiss was incredibly tender, no tongue, no needy moans, just a loving touch and shared breath. It was the best he had ever had. His last thought before he fell asleep with his boyfriend cuddled into his side, was that he would have purred loud enough for the others to hear down the hall, if he had still been a cat right now.

 

* * *

 

When he woke up the next morning, Gerard needed a moment to realize that he wasn’t dreaming. A firm body was lying on his chest, warm breath fanning over the skin of his neck. Frank. Gerard ‘s face broke into the brightest smile. He wrapped both arms around his boyfriend and pulled him close, nearly choking on his all-encompassing happiness. Frank groaned and buried his face in Gerard’s neck before he tenderly pressed soft lips against his skin. “I like you better without the fur”, Frank mumbled sleepily. Gerard snickered at that, the feeling was mutual. “I love you, Frankie, he whispered into his boyfriend’s ear and was rewarded with a sloppy kiss and a “Love you too”. He still couldn’t believe that he would always wake up like this from now on.

 

Suddenly the door handle was pushed down and the door swung open to reveal Ray and Mikey with Karl on his shoulder, who was covering his eyes with a paw. “Try to knock next time, you nosy fuckers, or you might get an eyeful of something you don’t wanna see”, Frank said with a smirk, before he cupped Gerard's cheek in his hand and kissed him again, a lot dirtier than before. There was a gagging noise, that sounded like Karl, but Gerard couldn’t care less. “If you’re quite finished, Vanessa sent us to tell you that breakfast is ready. There’s eggs and bacon and croissants and _coffee_ , but if you rather suck faces…”, Mikey told them casually. Gerard sighed and pulled back, he really didn’t want to get up, but since his brother had played the coffee card… Frank sat up next to him, so Gerard begrudgingly followed his example. “Oh, one more thing...”, Mikey said over his shoulder before he made for the kitchen, “… I told you so!”

 

Gerard was luxuriating in his fourth cup of coffee and watching his brother feed Karl bits of bacon when Alicia rang them up. Her and Christa were about to board a plane to Hamburg. Everything, that had been left behind in their hotel rooms, had been given to their families, which included the passports they needed to leave the country. Therefore Ray’s and Mikey’s wives had gathered all the necessary documents and some of their personal stuff and decided to come pick them up. They were due to arrive early the next morning and had already booked tickets for a flight home tomorrow afternoon. Gerard would be home for Christmas. It would be late, their plane was scheduled to land at nine in the evening at JFK, but it would still be the 25th of December and they could make it to their parent’s house before midnight. Gerard couldn’t wait, he had never yearned for Jersey so much.

 

* * *

 

Vanessa spent the day in the kitchen, preparing a great meal of roast goose, potato dumplings and red cabbage. She even whipped up some vegetarian pasta with walnut sauce for Frank to eat, so that everybody could enjoy dinner to the fullest. Needless to say, Karl loved every second of ‘that weird thing humans did with the paper boxes underneath a tree’, since it got him as much warm, juicy meat as he could possibly eat. Their friend wolfed it down until he literally couldn’t move anymore and fell asleep with his mouth still full and his face planted into his plate.

It was a great evening. They ate cookies and candy, drank hot chocolate and watched “Home Alone” and “Gremlins”, the only Christmas movies Vanessa had. She was a wonderful host, they had been so incredibly lucky to meet her. Without her help, they would still live in the old theater, Mikey would still be hurt and who knew how long it would have taken them to figure out how to break the curse? Ultimately their music had saved them. If Gerard hadn’t recognized his own voice on her iPod, if she hadn’t known who they were… he had never been so grateful for his celebrity status.

 

Gerard sat on the couch with Frank cuddled up in his lap and couldn’t get over how perfect this was. Mikey sat next to him with Vanessa’s laptop balanced on his thighs and was writing a statement for their fans, Karl was passed out on the other side of the sofa and Ray had gotten his hands on Vanessa’s Les Paul. Their band mom was grinning like a Cheshire cat and playing Metallica songs with Vanessa, who turned out to be studying guitar at the nearby Hamburg School of Music. She had produced an acoustic guitar from somewhere and was jamming away with Ray, both of them completely in the zone.

Gerard pulled Frank a little closer and reveled in the knowledge that he was actually allowed to do that now. His boyfriend looked at him with stars in his eyes and he simply couldn’t resist. They had restrained themselves the entire day and kept the PDA to a minimum, but Gerard might actually die if he didn’t kiss Frank immediately. Even the softest touch still felt as magical as the very first time it had happened, he could do this for hours and forget everything around-… “Guys, get a room!”, Ray yelled from the other side of the room, right before they were hit by a pillow. So much for that.

 

* * *

 

However, when they finally were alone in their room that night, there was no more restraint. Gerard's back collided with the door when Frank pounced on him and smashed their lips together. He sucked and bit on his lips, thrust his tongue into his mouth and Gerard became lightheaded, because he literally forgot to breathe. He had never been kissed like this before, but he loved every second of it and gave as good as he got. His body was trembling with tension and pent-up arousal, he hadn’t gotten off in almost two months. Obviously certain parts of his anatomy weren’t on board with ‘taking it slow’, he was hard and throbbing in his sweat pants. God, Gerard couldn’t remember the last time he had been so desperate!

 

“How slow do you want to take this? ‘Cause I really want to blow you”, Frank asked him breathlessly, biting his lip and looking at him with dark, heavy-lidded eyes. There went Gerard's ability to speak, his mouth was bone dry, he couldn’t have uttered a single word and frantically shook his head yes instead. Frank smirked at him and attached his lips to the tender skin of Gerard’s neck, sucking hard enough to leave bruises. And Gerard wanted them, he couldn’t wait to wear Frank’s marks on his body as a tangible reminder that this was real. While he was distracted Frank pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it somewhere behind them while his lips already closed around one of Gerard’s tight nipples. Gerard stuffed a fist in his mouth and bit down hard to muffle his moans. They would never hear the end of it if the others should notice what they were doing.

 

Frank hungrily kissed his way down Gerard’s chest, leaving little red marks in his wake. Gerard felt bad for not participating more, but he was so overwhelmed by the onslaught, that all he could do was lean against the door and take it. Before he knew it, his sweats were pooling around his ankles and Frank pulled down his boxers. The first tentative touch of Frank’s calloused fingers to his cock had Gerard's head fall back and collide with the door with a loud thud. Oh God, this was unlike anything he had ever felt before! Nothing could have prepared him for this, not even the admittedly very detailed fantasies, that kept him awake at night more often than not.

 

When he finally managed to look down, Frank smirked at him, opened his mouth tortuously slowly and licked a long stripe along his shaft. The high-pitched whimper, that escaped Gerard’s throat, was probably the most pathetic sound he had ever made. He carefully cupped Frank’s face in his hands and bit the inside of his cheek when he finally enveloped the tip of his cock in his mouth. It was warm and wet, Frank sucked him just right and the way his perfect, pink lips stretched around him… There was no way Gerard was gonna last.

 

Frank took him deeper, almost all the way, until he gagged a little and pulled back. Gerard's eyes rolled back into his head when he grabbed the base of his cock with one hand and started to bob his head in earnest. The feeling was incredible, he was dangerously close in no time. “Frankie, f-fuck, I’m… _oh my God”_ , he panted out, his voice strained with the effort to remain quiet. His boyfriend’s only reaction was the dirtiest grin and even harder sucking. He massaged the sensitive spot under the head of his cock just right until Gerard felt himself careening past the point of no return. The familiar burn started deep in his guts and spread through his entire body as his balls tightened and he exploded in a rush of white hot ecstasy.

 

Gerard bit his lower lip until he tasted blood, but he still didn’t manage to keep his desperate moans inside. He was shaking like a leaf and squeezing his eyes shut as his cock twitched between Frank’s lips and filled his mouth until some of his cum dribbled down his chin. Gerard was tingling all over, his body trembling with delicious aftershocks as he tried to catch his breath and watched his wet cock slide out between his boyfriend’s lips. God, if a blowjob was already such a mind-blowing experience, he couldn’t wait for the moment he got to go all the way. The mental image of his cock sinking into Frank’s ass was almost enough to get hard again.

 

“Fuuuuuck, Frankie”, he moaned breathlessly and finally sank down to his knees when his quivering legs gave out. Somehow he managed to pull him in and press a sloppy kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. The taste of himself in Frank’s mouth was too good to be true, how the hell had he ever gotten this lucky? Suddenly Gerard realized that Frank was still fully clothed and the need to feel his naked skin against his became absolutely urgent. It took him only a few seconds to yank Frank’s shirt over his head and pull at his sweatpants. “Off, now, let me see you”, he begged him, frantically shoving at the fabric.

 

Frank pushed himself up off the floor and obeyed hastily until he stood before Gerard in all his naked glory. It felt like suffocating, Frank literally took his breath away. He was so… fucking… beautiful! Gerard raised his hands and grabbed the ‘Search And Destroy’ tattoo, that curled all the way around his boyfriend’s hips. His eyes roamed over Frank’s defined pecs and his firm belly. Nearly two months of hunting for food and running around the city had definitely helped with shaping him up even more, he was irresistible. But all that faded away when he took in his hard cock.

 

They had seen each other naked before, of course they had, that was kinda unavoidable if you lived in a van together, but never like this, never fully aroused and leaking pre cum. He was magnificent. Long and thick, a little curved upwards, flushed with blood and a net of veins visible through the taut skin. “How the fuck do you hide _that_ in your pants?”, Gerard whispered in awe as he reached for it and brushed his fingertips over the slit, smearing pearly drops over the shiny skin. “What did you think why I play guitar? Oh fuck, come on, Gee, _please!_ ”, Frank gasped out, his soft lips forming a perfect circle.

 

Gerard swallowed hard and lunged forwards, taking in as much as he possibly could. He had done that part before, several times, but it had never been anywhere near as intense as this. Because it was _Frank_ , who was cursing and shaking above him while his hands gripped his hair and he shoved his cock deeper. Gerard gagged violently and pulled back. His eyes were watering and he was panting already, but he couldn’t get enough. “Behave”, he whispered, pushed Frank against the door and held his hips in place before he went down again. The chocked sob, that tore out of his boyfriend’s throat, went directly into his spank bank.

 

He applied every trick he knew, hard sucking, tonguing through the slit, grazing with his teeth and teasing behind Frank’s balls with his fingertips. Gerard could feel his boyfriend’s thighs start to tremble and his hands tighten in his hair. He was still contemplating whether he should draw it out a little more when Frank arched his back and his orgasm hit. Gerard looked up at him and held his breath. It was the most magnificent thing he had ever seen. Frank was shaking violently, he had his eyes squeezed shut and was gasping for breath before he went very still, let out a deep, ragged moan and came right into Gerard’s mouth, flooding it with thick ropes of cum.

 

Gerard swallowed greedily, he wanted it all, needed more. Frank could barely hold himself upright by the looks of it, utterly devastated by Gerard’s lips on him. “Oh fuck, Gee, you’re fucking _awesome_ ”, he said as soon as he had caught his breath and only just made it to the bed before he collapsed onto the sheets. Gerard felt on top of the world, this had far surpassed his wildest fantasies. He pulled the comforter out from underneath Frank’s sweaty body and settled down next to him.

 

“I love you”, his boyfriend whispered into his chest with a content sigh. Gerard’s stomach did a somersault and a wide grin cut his face in half. “Love you too, Frankie”, he replied fondly and kissed his hair. Just before he fell asleep, he glanced at the door and bit his lips. “If we ever tell anyone that we had our first time against a Pete Wentz poster, Mikey’s gonna flip his shit”, Gerard stated matter-of-factly, feeling Frank jerk on his chest. And then they both burst out laughing until they cried.


	9. Epilogue

~ 22.03.2013 ~

 

Gerard and Frank walked down the street, holding hands and smiling at each other. Mikey, Ray, James and Jarrod, their new drummer, followed close behind with Karl riding on Mikey’s shoulder. The two had become inseparable, Karl was almost a member of the band already. He accompanied them to interviews, photo sessions and even concerts (they had paid quite a lot of money for special, cat-sized earmuffs). That little guy was an attention whore, seriously, he was worse than any of them had ever been.  


Plus, he was the ultimate fashion victim. A few weeks after their return to Jersey a fan had sent him a cat-sized parade jacket and Karl had pranced around in it for days before a red mini Kobra Kid leather jacket had arrived. Today he was in a white collar with a black bow tie, Mikey would probably have to buy him a wardrobe before the end of the year. 

Right now they were in the middle of recording their fifth album in L.A., but currently on their way to a much needed coffee break. The diner they frequented was only a block away, but before they made it there, a black cat stepped in their way and spluttered: “What the fuck! How did you break that curse!?” It took Gerard a few seconds to put the pieces together. The voice did sound kinda familiar, though… Oh!

 

On boxing day last Christmas, they each had received a letter, telling them that Pedicone had been taken care of by the Witches’ Circle of America. They had been promised that they would never be bothered by him again and asked to announce their permanent split with him along with a plausible reason. Hence the news of him stealing all over the internet. They hadn’t been given any details about his punishment, but apparently the good old ‘an eye for an eye’ was still popular among witches. Gerard fucking loved those people. He wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s waist, pulled him in and kissed him for all he was worth. “Eat dirt, Pedicone”, he whispered quietly enough for James and Jarrod not to hear. The bastard’s expression was priceless. 

  


~ October of 2051 ~

  


Four old men in parade jackets were sitting on a park bench somewhere in New Jersey. It was warm for an October afternoon, with a mild breeze tousling their thinning hair. They had sneaked away for a few minutes on their own, as it turned out the celebrations of one’s band’s 50th anniversary could be quite tedious. “Do you remember that time when we were cats?”, the one with gray curls and thick glasses wanted to know. “Oh God, I swear, I can still smell that vodka!”, said the one, who was covered in tattoos pretty much from head to toe. 

 

That was when a little tabby kitten walked up to them, cocked its head and said: “Guys, you’ve grown old.”  


“Kaaaaaaaaarl!”, they all cried in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was quite a ride, thanks to everyone, who made it through. It would mean a lot to me if you gave me some feedback <3


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